The paper discusses tourism ecolabels from regulatory and branding perspectives. By ecolabels, we mean standard-based private regulation that is made visible to the final consumer. We apply the principles of evolutionary psychology for understanding why tourists would choose an ecolabeled alternative. The framework of the ultimate human motives predicts an important distinction between ecolabels on destination quality vs. ecolabels on social benefits. Destination quality is an experience feature related to direct personal benefits for tourists. Ecolabels such as the Blue Flag for beaches can be used efficiently for regulating and branding destination quality. Social benefit, on the other hand, is a credence feature. Most consumers are not motivated to evaluate and regulate the overall social and environmental sustainability of tourism activities. In our evolutionary history, the reason for travel was to benefit the traveller. We predict that ecolabels are relevant for regulating and branding destination quality, but enforceable legal rules are needed for social-benefit issues.