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.

Has ‘Future of Tourism’ failed host communities?

June 18, 2020
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Are host communities being ground down by the tourism industrial complex? Caption by "GT". Image by Andrius Petrucenia (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia. "GT" cropped it and applied a rouge filter. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mincer_(3075035).jpeg

The Future of Tour­ism Coali­tion is rather like a pub­lic rela­tions pyr­am­id scheme. The earli­er one signs up to it, the great­er the PR bene­fit. After every­one rushes in it will no longer be news­worthy. So if you’re going to sign up for it, do so after you read this hot take. Or wait until […]

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By invitation only: Sustainable tourism revisited

May 19, 2020

Is tourism greed good or should tourism be by invitation only? Image supplied by author.

For truly sus­tain­able tour­ism to have a chance, indi­vidu­al des­tin­a­tions and host com­munit­ies must use the coronavir­us crisis to take back con­trol from glob­al fin­an­cial interests after dec­ades of failed talks at the highest levels. This is accord­ing to Dr Thomas Bauer in a fresh and reflect­ive “GT” Insight; his second. Indeed Dr Bauer reckons […]

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Turn down the volume: How to plan for a sustainable tourism recovery after C‑19

May 6, 2020
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Leatherback hatching at Khao Lampi - Hat Thai Mueng national park. Image courtesy of (c) Phuket Marine National Parks Operations Center 2 / https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2624818794469718&set=pcb.2624819491136315&type=1&theater

Bangkok-based travel & hos­pit­al­ity entre­pren­eur and sus­tain­able tour­ism advoc­ate Willem Niemeijer sees an oppor­tun­ity in the SARS-CoV­­‑2 crisis; an oppor­tun­ity to rebal­ance tour­ism with more sens­ible man­age­ment and less vis­it­or volume. But make your plans swiftly because Mr Niemeijer reck­ons recov­ery will be faster than many think. The lock­down meas­ures in place to keep the […]

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How “Feel Good” positions, promotes Germany as a sustainable tourism destination

March 31, 2020

Couple at an accessible viewpoint overlooking Saarschleife (Saar Loop) in the German region of "Saarland", which is certifiably sustainable. Image by Jens Wegener; supplied by GNTB.

As Innov­a­tions Man­ager for the Ger­man Nation­al Tour­ist Board, Olaf Schlieper is the chief scout for issues and trends in travel & tour­ism. One area he is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in is sus­tain­ab­il­ity. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Mr Schlieper gives us an idea as to why and how Ger­many is pos­i­tion­ing itself as a sustainable […]

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Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

February 23, 2020

share cloud image for Dare to share, not declare: Travel & tourism and the reality of climate change

Cli­mate change is real. It comes with costs. Cli­mate policy also comes with costs. The trick is to find a sens­ible bal­ance.  So said com­pas­sion­ate ration­al­ist Bjorn Lom­borg in a con­ver­sa­tion with former Deputy PM of Aus­tralia John Ander­son, which was pub­lished Fri­day on You­Tube.  Dr Lom­borg, who is Pres­id­ent of the Copen­ha­gen Con­sensus Center, […]

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How a community-based tourism & homestay network empowers women in Nepal

February 4, 2020

Women who manage the Panauti Community Homestay with some members of the CHN team

Tour­ism impact and sus­tain­ab­il­ity expert Aady­aa Pandey dis­cusses a few of the chal­lenges over­come by Nepal’s Com­munity Homestay Net­work (CHN). And she cel­eb­rates its pos­it­ive impacts. Thanks to “Good Tour­ism” Insight Part­ner Second Look World­wide for invit­ing Aady­aa to con­trib­ute this inspir­ing “GT” Insight about a social enter­prise that arose from a mod­est yet wildly […]

Read More How a community-based tourism & homestay network empowers women in Nepal