At the end of May we faced the elaborate audit process for the Austrian Eco-label for Tourism Destinations and together with representatives of the regional communities, the TVB board, the Tyrol Tourist Board and stakeholders of the region Johann Madreiter and Christian Baumgartner as well as Otto Fichtl as the person responsible for the Eco-label in the Association for Consumer Information (VKI) showed our commitment to a sustainable destination. With success!

"We are proud to be able to play a pioneering role here and to be the first to bear this prestigious mark," says TVB Managing Director Elias Walser. Alois Seyrling, chairman of the Seefeld Tourism Association, adds: "The award of the Austrian Eco-label is an important milestone on our already multi-year journey to offer forward-looking tourism." All the players involved, from the tourism association (TVB) and local politicians to local businesses and the Karwendel Nature Park, are very proud of the seal of approval, but at the same time see it as just a further step towards the region's sustainable, environmentally conscious future.

"You don't get the eco-label for destinations on your own, neither as a municipality nor as a tourism association. It is awarded to the region as a whole and only when all the stakeholders work together," explains Walser, who is pleased that all those involved are so united behind the concept of sustainability. In addition to the municipalities of Seefeld, Leutasch, Mösern-Buchen/Marktgemeinde Telfs, Reith and Scharnitz and the TVB, they also include the Regional Management Innsbruck Land with Albuin Neuner and the local businesses. They all want to set an example and raise awareness.

A special role is played by the Plateau Pioneers, a group of ten key players who demonstrate how sustainability can work in practice. Alongside the tourism association and the Karwendel Nature Park, eight hotel establishments are leading the way in environmental protection. Five of them – Naturhotel aufatmen, Biohotel Leutascherhof, Hotel Klosterbräu, Alpenhotel Karwendel, and Schmiedhof – have been awarded the Austrian Eco-label and the EU Ecolabel. The other three hotels are currently in the application process.