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.

10th Rwandan cultural festival opens new community tourism body, promotes gorilla pledge


Red Rocks Cultural Festival 2022 Rwanda

The Red Rocks 10th Anniversary Cul­tur­al Fest­iv­al, August 26-Septem­ber 2, brought organ­isa­tions and com­munit­ies togeth­er to cel­eb­rate and pro­mote Rwandan cul­ture, con­ser­va­tion, and sus­tain­able tour­ism.  As an advoc­ate for cul­ture and com­munity, Red Rocks hos­ted per­formers of all ages from the loc­al area.  Vis­it­ors from near and far enjoyed many tra­di­tion­al dances and music, keep­ing Rwandan […]

Read More 10th Rwandan cultural festival opens new community tourism body, promotes gorilla pledge

Vale Mikhail Gorbachev, planetary hero


Mikhail Gorbachev, May 12, 2010 by Veni (CC BY 2.0) via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/veni/4602977436/in/photostream/

Mikhail Gorbachev died on August 30th, 2022. The former Pres­id­ent of the Uni­on of Soviet Social­ist Repub­lics (USSR) is best remembered as the man who engin­eered the peace­ful trans­form­a­tion of the USSR and the open­ing of the Ber­lin Wall. Less known is the fact that dur­ing his incred­ible life he col­lab­or­ated closely with Maurice Strong. Togeth­er they […]

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Tourism’s resilience relies on sustainable, regenerative, needs-based models

August 29, 2022

Can tourism be resilient, like ivy. Image by Alicia Mary Smith (CC0) via Unsplash https://unsplash.com/photos/GHoxPI8qvfs

For tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and ser­vice pro­viders to sur­vive and thrive in the face of cur­rent and loom­ing chal­lenges they must become more resi­li­ent, accord­ing to K Michael Hay­wood. Prof Hay­wood argues that this can be achieved by demo­crat­ising ‘com­munit­ies-as-des­t­in­a­­tions’ and enact­ing prin­ciples of sus­tain­ab­il­ity and regen­er­a­tion. Tourism’s reviv­al may be under­way, though its resi­li­ence is […]

Read More Tourism’s resilience relies on sustainable, regenerative, needs-based models

Rwanda’s neighbours to learn conservation, sustainable development practices


Rwandan man sits against a mud or clay wall smoking a pipe, looking at the camera. He's earing a wide=brimmed hat and a tan jacket.

Red Rocks Ini­ti­at­ive for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment will launch the ‘Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary Ini­ti­at­ive’ in 2022. The Ini­ti­at­ive will share its con­ser­va­tion and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment con­cepts with neigh­bour­ing coun­tries fol­low­ing their suc­cess in Rwanda.  The Vir­unga Trans­bound­ary Ini­ti­at­ive will include com­munit­ies in Uganda and the Demo­crat­ic Repub­lic of the Congo that share the Vir­unga mas­sif with those […]

Read More Rwanda’s neighbours to learn conservation, sustainable development practices

Belgian B&B implements sustainable circular solutions: A case study

, and August 16, 2022
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Lighthouse at Nieuwpoort, Belgium. By Wouter Martens (CC0) via Unsplash. Arrows by GDJ (CC0) via Pixabay.

A bed & break­fast in Nieuw­poort, Bel­gi­um has lever­aged the sup­port of a European Uni­on-fun­­ded pro­ject to imple­ment viable ‘cir­cu­lar’ solu­tions. Accord­ing to authors Angelo Sciacca, Lucien von Schomberg, and Eline Brutyn, the B&B’s own­ers have set a good example for oth­er travel & tour­ism entre­pren­eurs to fol­low.  It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too […]

Read More Belgian B&B implements sustainable circular solutions: A case study

Travel & tourism degrowth to what end? Relationships that matter

July 26, 2022

Degrowth is about relationships that matter. Image by Sasin Tipchai (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/grandmother-kids-laptop-myanmar-1822560/

‘Tour­ism degrowth’ is viewed sus­pi­ciously by some as a con­spir­acy to tear down cap­it­al­ism and vastly reduce travel.  Accord­ing to Tazim Jamal, how­ever, tour­ism degrowth is much more about fos­ter­ing heal­ing and nur­tur­ing rela­tion­ships with people and our plan­et. And she thinks that we should tran­scend labels and divi­sions. Between 2009 and 2019, real growth […]

Read More Travel & tourism degrowth to what end? Relationships that matter