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.

‘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 […]

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EXO Foundation’s first Sustainability Awards support transformative tourism projects in Asia


EXO Foundation Sustainability Awards 2923

The EXO Found­a­tion, a non-profit organ­isa­tion sup­port­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism ini­ti­at­ives, held its first Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Awards cere­mony yes­ter­day (Septem­ber 28) on Zoom.  Prizes totalling US$40,000 in value were awar­ded to win­ners and run­­n­ers-up. The goal of the awards was to identi­fy, sup­port and pro­mote exem­plary pro­jects that seek to innov­ate sus­tain­ab­il­ity in Asia.  Alex­an­dra Michat, Chief Pur­pose Officer […]

Read More EXO Foundation’s first Sustainability Awards support transformative tourism projects in Asia

Can tackling tourism income leakage unlock a more sustainable future for tourism?

September 19, 2023

Can tackling tourism income leakage unlock a more sustainable future for tourism? Image by Steve Buissinne (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/plumbing-pipe-wrenches-plumber-840835/

‘Profit’, the much-maligned ‘P’ of sus­tain­ab­il­ity, is a strong incent­ive for people to save and invest for the future; seek out and con­serve what is of value; and rein­vest. Hoteli­er and entre­pren­eur Thomas Müller argues that tak­ing a close look at tour­ism income leak­age may prove … well, prof­it­able … wherever our industry is most problematic. 

Read More Can tackling tourism income leakage unlock a more sustainable future for tourism?

Indigenous tourism’s interest-action disparity reflects sustainable tourism’s ‘say-do gap’

August 15, 2023

Indigenous tourism’s interest-action disparity reflects sustainable tourism’s ‘say-do gap’. Image by Scott Umstattd (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/trYLgKiDsR8

Indi­gen­ous tour­ism has enorm­ous poten­tial as trav­el­lers’ expect­a­tions evolve, accord­ing to Alastair Naughton. Per­haps the biggest chal­lenge now is turn­ing interest in indi­gen­ous tour­ism exper­i­ences into invest­ment and book­ings. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. (You too can write a “GT” Insight.)

Read More Indigenous tourism’s interest-action disparity reflects sustainable tourism’s ‘say-do gap’

Souvenirs: Can three pieces of coral inspire tourism towards ocean regeneration?

July 4, 2023

Can travel & tourism contribute to ocean regeneration? Image by Vlad Tchompalov (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/ZEpxoNzKfcc

Three pieces of cor­al, and the memor­ies they evoke, inspire K Michael Hay­wood to con­sider how travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers might con­trib­ute to ocean regen­er­a­tion.  It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] Every souven­ir deserves a val­ued space in our homes. As gathered from the beach in Sao Mar­tinho do Porto, […]

Read More Souvenirs: Can three pieces of coral inspire tourism towards ocean regeneration?

Do sustainability awards in long-haul destinations make sense?

June 22, 2023

Do sustainability awards for stakeholders in long-haul destinations make sense? Check box by OpenClipart-Vectors (CC0) and the beach by Walkerssk (CC0). Both via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/vectors/checkbox-checked-check-tick-okay-155884/ https://pixabay.com/photos/the-sea-maldives-holiday-paradise-3198131/

Richard But­ler won­ders why sus­tain­ab­il­ity awards are giv­en to stake­hold­ers in des­tin­a­tions that rely upon long-haul air travel.  In dir­ect reply to “Good Tour­ism” news­let­ter #185, Prof But­ler wrote: I won­der why so many organ­isa­tions sup­port­ing ‘sus­tain­able tour­ism’ offer awards to enter­prises in coun­tries where the major­ity of non-domest­­ic tour­ists travel long dis­tances by plane to reach such […]

Read More Do sustainability awards in long-haul destinations make sense?