Since flying really isn’t a pleasant experience anymore and last-minute offers have lost their allure, natural disasters and political unrest are escalating in many parts of the world, Europeans are increasingly looking for recreation on their own continent. To regenerate at the ocean or in the mountains is in demand again. This in itself pleasant development is finding the service providers, beginning with politicians all the way to the experts in communities and regions, relatively unprepared, as the great discussion about the campaign for guests is showing. It is surely also playing a role that Europeans tend towards vanity and prefer to forgo the truly essential facts.

Guest and host have long been hostages of advocacy groups and event managers who are in control of the “business” and specify what is possible and what not. The local tourism organizations whose calling and mission the well-being of the guests should be, are more or less only servants of those calling the shots. For instance, if a Swiss village wants to get back its old “Bellini-image” in order to inspire a new jet-set generation, or if Bavarians argue, whether Upper or Lower Bavaria represent the more beautiful part of Bavaria, then this does not change the fact that at the end of the day the industrialization of tourism takes place at the expense of the charm, which after all is what makes the European vacation region so surpassingly beautiful.

The people will not be able to truly enjoy their vacation in Europe until the predominance of the profiteers has been put into its place. If Olympic Games are primarily meant to fill the coffers of the committees, if sports events such as world championships end up as a forest of signposts, where sponsors spread their message among a wider audience, where every tree and every intersection is left to event marketers for subletting, the guest is degraded to consumer. This also reduces the great chances of many European regions to fully capitalize on the value of hosting their tradition and culture where tourism is an important economic factor.

Bavaria wants to be host to the youth of the world in 2018. According to the specifications of those setting the tone for Olympia and the legions of profiteers, some have forgotten due to a lack of perspective, that it is the farmers who give the quality and allure to the landscape through their conservation of countryside measures and groundedness, which in turn makes it interesting for the luxury industry to settle in the Alpine region.

Homestead and Louis Vuitton can by all means form a symbiosis in the interest of the guest. However, both have to get the opportunity to play their own role in this. The guest wants to see adorned farmhouses, an Alpine flora and fauna as God created it and wants to enjoy hospitality when he or she arrives at an Alpine village for regeneration. And this also applies to the “high-end” locations. And the guest wants to “enjoy” athletic events, without being ripped off.

Europe has got a great opportunity right now to represent itself to its own citizens and to the people from all over the world as a reservoir for life-culture. Generosity and holistic thinking and acting are the means to turn this opportunity into success. Focusing on the person and keeping the enterprising and bustling string-puller under control and not the other way around.