All industry sectors are facing sustainability challenges, and tourism is no exception. As the scattered performances of industry actors illustrate, sustainability remains a puzzling concept for many tourism organizations. Although innovation is a key concept in answering sustainability challenges, current frameworks fail to account for the large diversity of holiday products and services that are currently categorized as ‘sustainable innovations’. This paper uses innovation concepts to identify the opportunities with highest chances to foster progress towards sustainable tourism. By taking a wider perspective of what tourism innovation entails, the paper expands the understanding of different degrees of change to include experiential and relationship transformations, in order to differentiate opportunities with higher chances to succeed. One of the key conclusions suggests that important agents in tourism chains have a chance to increase their attention to intangible aspects of their products when seeking opportunities for sustainable innovation.