29 Nov Why Regenerative Tourism Now… and what about Sustainable Tourism?

Regenerative tourism is having its moment. Through the pandemic year of 2020, there are have been strong calls for tourism to “build back better” – and regenerative tourism provides insights into what we should do.

Regenerative Tourism at the Tipping Point

While the term may seem new, it builds on several significant trends that have been around for some time. The regenerative movement is well established in agriculture, architecture, and even town planning. We already see regenerative approaches applied in tourism. Buildings that not only reduce negative impacts but contribute positively to the environment by capturing water or reducing carbon are examples of regenerative principles applied. More broadly, regenerative design is one of the three pillars of the circular economy. Circular economy principles are being applied extensively across manufacturing industries.

Regenerative approaches don’t want just to make things not worse; they want to make things better. If “leave no trace” is the mantra of sustainability, “leave the place better than you found it” captures the regenerative movement’s ethos.

There have been voices calling for regenerative tourism approaches for years. Anna Pollock has advocated for years for tourism that allows communities to “flourish” , Pauline Sheldon encouraged tourism to adopt Fullerton’s principles of regenerative capitalism, and I included a call for regenerative approaches in my first book “Introduction to Sustainable Tourism and Responsible Travel”.

Even so – it is worthwhile asking – “how is this different from sustainable tourism?”

5 Challenges with “sustainability”…

The term “sustainability’ has always had challenges:

• The term has been considered “jargony” for over ten years
• It has political baggage in some places, including the US
• Some folks feel that sustainability has become mired down in metrics and bean-counting. Sustainability and sustainable tourism are about ticking things off lists rather than making the world better.
• Perhaps most importantly, there is a growing feeling that sustainability sets the bar too low. As Elkington, a thought leader in the field and the originator of the term “triple-bottom-line,”, says, “do no harm is not enough”.

So does regenerative tourism replace sustainable tourism? Not really. Regenerative approaches build on the foundation of sustainability. Indeed, regenerative and circular economy principles are “baked into” sustainability. While regenerative tourism may feel new – it is really a refreshed approach to the same set of issues addressed by sustainability.

The work to be done

It is exciting to see this enthusiasm for regenerative tourism. If the new term helps overcome some of the challenges we have with the term “sustainability,” and energizes people to act on making tourism better – great ! Even so –  it is important to remember that system change is hard work. Adopting regenerative approaches, like adopting sustainability, is a complex, complicated challenge.

There is work to be done.