Sustainable tourism and regenerative tourism

Scroll down for posts that have been tagged with “sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tourism”.

Sus­tain­able tour­ism “takes full account of its cur­rent and future eco­nom­ic, social and envir­on­ment­al impacts, address­ing the needs of vis­it­ors, the industry, the envir­on­ment and host com­munit­ies”, accord­ing to the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO)Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism chal­lenges and/or extends the concept of sus­tain­able tourism.

The con­cepts of sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism have emerged as a response to the neg­at­ive impacts that tour­ism can have on the envir­on­ment, eco­nomy, and society.

The 1987 Report of the World Com­mis­sion on Envir­on­ment and Devel­op­ment, also known as the Brundtland Report, defined sus­tain­able devel­op­ment as “devel­op­ment that meets the needs of the present without com­prom­ising the abil­ity of future gen­er­a­tions to meet their own needs.”

This idea was later applied to tour­ism. The concept of sus­tain­able tour­ism was born to ensure that tour­ism activ­it­ies are car­ried out in a way that does not deplete nat­ur­al resources or harm loc­al communities.

Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism is a more recent devel­op­ment. It builds upon the prin­ciples of sus­tain­able tour­ism, but goes fur­ther by striv­ing to cre­ate pos­it­ive impact on the envir­on­ment, eco­nomy, and society.

Accord­ing to the book Regen­er­at­ive Tour­ism: Prin­ciples, prac­tices and implic­a­tions by Paul Peeters and Peter Neuwirth, the term ‘regen­er­at­ive tour­ism’ was first intro­duced in 2012. The authors define regen­er­at­ive tour­ism as a “hol­ist­ic approach to tour­ism devel­op­ment that seeks to cre­ate a pos­it­ive impact on the envir­on­ment, eco­nomy and soci­ety, and to regen­er­ate the des­tin­a­tions in which it operates”.

The United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO) has played a key role in pro­mot­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism through the devel­op­ment of guidelines, policies, and best prac­tices, such as the UNWTO Glob­al Code of Eth­ics for Tour­ism (1999) and the UN Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (2015)

It’s import­ant to note that these ref­er­ences are not exhaust­ive, as there are many oth­er sources of inform­a­tion on sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism, such as on The “Good Tour­ism” Blog.

At the end of a con­ver­sa­tion in August 2020 about the dif­fer­ences between sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism ― when asked to give the lift (elev­at­or) defin­i­tion of regen­er­at­ive tour­ism ― “Good Tour­ism” Friend Susanne Beck­on said: “Give back more than you take.”

At an eco­tour­ism con­fer­ence in Decem­ber 2020, Anna Pol­lock said there is a jour­ney we must all embark upon if the travel & tour­ism industry is to move from degen­er­at­ive busi­ness-as-usu­al to regen­er­at­ive flour­ish­ing and thriv­ing. The route, she reck­ons, is via notions of “green”, “sus­tain­able”, and “res­tor­at­ive” in that order.

Since August 2020 “GT” has used the same tag for both sus­tain­able tour­ism and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism. Tags are inform­al. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog tries not to get bogged down with ter­min­o­logy and defin­i­tions so you may dis­agree with tags applied (or not applied) to a post. Feel free to com­ment on the post. “GT” encour­ages good-faith debate and discussion.

Overtourism to no tourism and back again: What is Lake Tahoe’s ‘new normal’?

December 8, 2020
One Comment

Sunset over Lake Tahoe. Image by Rachid Dahnoun / Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority

Lake Tahoe, USA lived through the sud­den over­­­tour­ism-to-no-tour­ism with­draw­al exper­i­enced by many pop­u­lar des­tin­a­tions in 2020. The area also had to endure a wrench­ing return to over­tour­ism as city-slick­­ers rushed to get their nature fix after COVID lock­down. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Lake Tahoe Vis­it­ors Author­ity boss Car­ol Chap­lin out­lines the crazy jour­ney before […]

Read More Overtourism to no tourism and back again: What is Lake Tahoe’s ‘new normal’?

Regenerative ecotourism: Asking questions is the best place to start

December 3, 2020
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Overland track, Tasmania Wilderness. Image by pen_ash (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/overland-track-tasmania-wilderness-4111331/

“Ask­ing ques­tions is the best place to start,” Anna Pol­lock said dur­ing the after­noon of the third and final day of the 2020 Glob­al Eco Asia-Pacific Tour­ism Con­fer­ence. And she’s right, of course, yet no-one got the oppor­tun­ity to ask her any! Ms Pol­lock may be right about the bene­fit of ques­tions, but she’s obvi­ously not […]

Read More Regenerative ecotourism: Asking questions is the best place to start

Wake UP! to the transformative power of partnership & enterprise in Uganda


Wake up to the transformative power of enterprise in Uganda

Tan­ner C Knorr of Second Look World­wide talks with Iain Pat­ton of Uganda Part­ner­ship (UP!) about trans­form­a­tion­al tours. Tan­ner: Tell us about Uganda Part­ner­ship.  Iain: Uganda Part­ner­ship is a win-win approach to trav­el­ling off the beaten track in Africa and fund­ing busi­ness solu­tions to the poverty in the com­munit­ies we meet. At Uganda Part­ner­ship, or UP! for […]

Read More Wake UP! to the transformative power of partnership & enterprise in Uganda

Scottish tourism plans transformational path to post-COVID recovery

November 3, 2020

The Loup of Fintry. Image supplied by VisitScotland.

Vis­itScot­land chief Mal­colm Roughead shares how his organ­isa­tion has worked with host com­munit­ies and oth­er tour­ism stake­hold­ers to plot a respons­ible and sus­tain­able route out of the COVID crisis. Enjoy this “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  Scot­tish tour­ism, like the sec­tor world­wide, is in a pre­cari­ous state. The coronavir­us pan­dem­ic and its ongo­ing effects are chal­len­ging the […]

Read More Scottish tourism plans transformational path to post-COVID recovery

From overtourism to no tourism in Seychelles: What now for conservation?

October 27, 2020
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Seychelles is well known for its natural beauty (Photo: Nature Seychelles, Peter Chadwick)

Acclaimed envir­on­ment­al­ist and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment pro Dr Nirmal Shah has no solu­tion to con­ser­va­tion’s budget crisis in the COVID-19 era. And no-one else appears to have any answers either. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, the Nature Seychelles chief offers a brief his­tory of eco­tour­ism in Africa’s most pros­per­ous nation and lets us in on the […]

Read More From overtourism to no tourism in Seychelles: What now for conservation?

Tourism in crisis, tourism in need, & the hopeful pivots of the purpose-driven

and October 14, 2020

Elephant Conservation Center, Sayaboury, Laos. Image by Jimmy Beunardeau; supplied by authors.

Even the most altru­ist­ic of tour­ism organ­isa­tions is strug­gling to sur­vive in des­tin­a­tions that have been reli­ant on inter­na­tion­al tour­ism money to take care of anim­als, places, and people. How­ever neces­sity is a par­ent of innov­a­tion and, as Tour­ism In Need co-founders Robert Pow­ell and Ameer Vir­ani have found out, there are plenty of both […]

Read More Tourism in crisis, tourism in need, & the hopeful pivots of the purpose-driven