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.

Beyond ‘voluntourism’: Can you help Rwanda with sustainable tourism and community development?


Can you help Red Rocks with sustainable tourism and community development in Rwanda?

Drip­ping with sus­tain­able tour­ism and com­munity devel­op­ment poten­tial, the Vol­ca­noes Nation­al Park in north­west­ern Rwanda, along with the Vir­unga Park in the Demo­crat­ic Repub­lic of Congo (DRC) and the Bwindi Park in Uganda, make up the fam­ous Vir­unga Mas­sif whose eight vol­ca­noes are the only hab­it­at in the world for moun­tain gor­il­las. In Rwanda, Volcanoes […]

Read More Beyond ‘voluntourism’: Can you help Rwanda with sustainable tourism and community development?

How can we change sustainable tourism destination management for good?

January 24, 2023
One Comment

The world is changing. Is travel & tourism destination management? Individual holding newspaper by Gerd Altmann (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/businessman-newspaper-read-world-4929680/ Superimposed on top is aviation’s CO2 emissions in 2018, an image by @PythonMaps. "GT" added the words "Is travel & tourism?"

To cre­ate a more sus­tain­able tour­ism industry, des­tin­a­tion man­agers need to tackle ‘the invis­ible bur­den’ that trav­el­lers and their facil­it­at­ors and ser­vice pro­viders impose on people and places.  Megan Epler Wood dis­cusses the energy, intel­li­gence, resources, hope, and edu­ca­tion required to trans­form des­tin­a­tion man­age­ment for the 21st cen­tury and bey­ond.  Plan­et Hap­pi­ness invited Ms Epler Wood […]

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How can travel & tourism help save heritage sites from climate change?

December 6, 2022

How can travel & tourism help save heritage sites from climate change? Venice image by Albrecht Fietz (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/venice-italy-island-historic-center-7572877/

Travel & tour­ism and nat­ur­al and cul­tur­al her­it­age are often inter­de­pend­ent. So how should tour­ism respond to wor­ries that cli­mate change threatens her­it­age sites? It’s a ques­tion posed by Kev­in Phun in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Can tour­ism enable and enhance cli­mate change mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion meas­ures? Can tour­ist activ­it­ies help increase loc­al com­munit­ies’ resi­li­ence?  Global […]

Read More How can travel & tourism help save heritage sites from climate change?

Does sustainable tourism require ‘travel for everyone’?

November 29, 2022
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Does sustainable tourism require ‘travel for everyone’? Base image by geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/crowd-people-silhouettes-2045498/

Is ‘travel for every­one’ a pre­requis­ite for truly sus­tain­able tour­ism? Ira­ni­an schol­ar S Fate­meh Mosta­favi Shirazi pos­its the idea in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  [You too can write a “GT” Insight.] The pos­it­ives and neg­at­ives of the tour­ism industry, includ­ing how cru­cial it is (or is not) to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and par­tic­u­larly its con­tri­bu­tions to the […]

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250+ Thai tourism businesses train on minimum sustainability practices, access European markets


250+ Thai tourism businesses agree to minimum sustainability practices, gain Europe market access

More than 250 Thai tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als joined the dynam­ic “Tourlink Thai Tour­ism Sup­pli­ers Train­ing: Tools towards a Suc­cess­ful and Sus­tain­able Future” in Septem­ber. The train­ing brought togeth­er Thai tour­ism sup­pli­ers and com­munity enter­prises, across sec­tors, to raise their social and envir­on­ment­al per­form­ance while devel­op­ing their capa­city to reach more high-value European tour­ists through busi­ness partnerships. […]

Read More 250+ Thai tourism businesses train on minimum sustainability practices, access European markets

Really, what’s the difference? ‘Sustainable tourism’ vs ‘regenerative tourism’

September 20, 2022

Sustainable tourism vs regenerative tourism. What's the difference? Terraces by Zetong Li (CC0) via Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/soRA0cugtHI

In des­tin­a­tion and industry prac­tice, what is (are) the difference(s) between ‘sus­tain­able tour­ism’ and ‘regen­er­at­ive tour­ism’? It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight Bites ques­tion. Your cor­res­pond­ent put the ques­tion to a range of travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers — “GT” Insight authors, “GT” Part­ners, and their invit­ees — and invited emailed writ­ten responses of no more than 300 words.  My thanks to […]

Read More Really, what’s the difference? ‘Sustainable tourism’ vs ‘regenerative tourism’