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.

Khiri Reach commits to One Million Trees reforestation project in Cambodia


Khiri Reach, the 16-year old charitable arm of Khiri Travel, has joined Wildlife Alliance’s ambitious long-term One Million Trees initiative to reforest illegally cleared land in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains.

Khiri Reach, the 16-year old char­it­able arm of Khiri Travel, has joined Wild­life Alliance’s ambi­tious long-term One Mil­lion Trees ini­ti­at­ive to refor­est illeg­ally cleared land in Cambodia’s Car­damom Moun­tains. Khiri Reach has donated US$15,000 to the One Mil­lion Trees refor­est­a­tion pro­ject in the Koh Kong and Sihan­ouk­ville provinces of Cam­bod­ia. The char­ity has pledged to […]

Read More Khiri Reach commits to One Million Trees reforestation project in Cambodia

Believe in Bhutan: Book a meeting at ITB for sustainable, affordable, life-changing tours


Believe in Bhutan: Book a meeting at ITB for sustainable, affordable, life-changing tours. Bhutan Believe.

Believe it.  Bhutan, the land famed for its Gross Nation­al Hap­pi­ness, majest­ic land­scapes, and unique cul­tur­al exper­i­ences, is now more access­ible than ever for trav­el­lers.  This is thanks to sev­er­al key improve­ments in travel pro­ced­ures, includ­ing a sim­pli­fied visa pro­cess, reduced Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Fee (now US$100 per day), and increased flight options.  Not only that, […]

Read More Believe in Bhutan: Book a meeting at ITB for sustainable, affordable, life-changing tours

How to implement sustainable food systems in Southeast Asian hospitality

January 23, 2024

How to implement sustainable food systems in Southeast Asian hospitality. Spoons students.

Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo sum­mar­ises the case stud­ies shared and les­sons learned at a recent event about sus­tain­able food sys­tems organ­ised by the Asso­ci­ation of South­east Asi­an Social Enter­prises for Train­ing in Hos­pit­al­ity & Cater­ing (ASSET‑H&C). ASSET‑H&C is “GT” Insight Part­ner. [You too can write a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.] Where to start? Food waste, if it were a […]

Read More How to implement sustainable food systems in Southeast Asian hospitality

Partnerships: Good partners are like family at Red Rocks Initiatives Rwanda


Featured image for Partnerships: Why we cherish good partners at Red Rocks Initiatives Rwanda

At Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment in Rwanda we are always open to new part­ner­ships.  We recog­nise that good part­ners helped us take our very first steps. And good part­ners have helped us get to where we are now. They, and new part­ners, will be val­ued stake­hold­ers in our ongo­ing jour­ney. More than stakeholders, […]

Read More Partnerships: Good partners are like family at Red Rocks Initiatives Rwanda

Michele Sambaldi on technology, overtourism, sustainability, & connectivity

November 21, 2023

Michele Sambaldi on technology, overtourism, sustainability, & connectivity

Michele Sam­baldi stresses the need to keep one’s prom­ises in order to suc­ceed in hos­pit­al­ity and tour­ism. He also notes the con­tra­dic­tions inher­ent in dis­cus­sions around over­tour­ism, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, infra­struc­ture, and devel­op­ment.  Mr Sam­baldi par­ti­cip­ated in a Tourism’s Hori­zon Inter­view. For this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, the inter­view­er Saverio Francesco Ber­to­lu­cci sum­mar­ises the high­lights. [The full tran­scripts of the Tourism’s […]

Read More Michele Sambaldi on technology, overtourism, sustainability, & connectivity

‘Where responsibility meets opportunity’ is where tourism faces its threats

October 4, 2023

‘Where responsibility meets opportunity’ is where tourism faces its threats ... keynote by PATA Chair Peter Semone

Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA) Chair Peter Semone delivered an impas­sioned key­note address, Octo­ber 4, on the eve of PATA Travel Mart 2023 in New Del­hi, India. This “Good Tour­ism” Insight ver­sion was pub­lished with Mr Semone’s bless­ing. “GT” is attend­ing PATA Travel Mart at the kind invit­a­tion of PATA and thanks to the gen­er­os­ity of […]

Read More ‘Where responsibility meets opportunity’ is where tourism faces its threats