Sustainable Energy Management: Are Tourism SMEs in the South Baltic Region ready?

Abstract

As a key aspect of tourism competitiveness, sustainability plays an important role in profiling Europe as a tourism destination in key source markets. As in any other region, comprehensive engagement of key stakeholders plays an essential component in developing Europe as a sustainable tourist destination. This type of engagement requires a cross-border collaboration to establish a common region identity as a means of managing complex processes of globalization. The initial requirement for such an interaction is to identify appropriate relevant stakeholders for European sustainable tourism and to facilitate cross-border dialogue and interactions. In the field of energy, it is important to take into consideration energy sustainability and energy efficiency. Energy effectiveness can be described as the interaction between energy produced and energy induced/invested. Sustainable energy can be assessed from the perspective of consumption/production or the impact it has on the environment and society. This study focuses on sustainable energy management in the Polish coastal area, which is a part of the South Baltic region. The region has exceptional potential for becoming a forerunner in achieving sustainable tourism goals of the EU. Utilizing the “sustainable energy theory”, the purpose of this research is to examine energy management problems with regard to sustainable development for Polish tourism SMEs in the South Baltic region.