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.

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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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No invitation required: Hedonic sustainability & meaningful tourism

June 28, 2022
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Is this hedonic sustainability and meaningful tourism By Karsten Würth (CC0) via Unsplash.

What is ‘hedon­ic sus­tain­ab­il­ity’ and ‘mean­ing­ful tour­ism’? Wolfgang Georg Arlt intro­duces and describes the terms in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, which is a response to a “GT” Insight by his friend Thomas Bauer. [Thanks to Dr Bauer for invit­ing Dr Arlt to write a “GT” Insight. And thanks to both of them for mod­el­ling the spir­it of “GT”, […]

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Khiri Travel Sri Lanka reaps rewards for designing sustainable experiences


Khiri Travel Sri Lanka team explore Sri Lanka while creating sustainable travel experiences

With Sri Lanka open­ing its bor­ders for inter­na­tion­al tour­ists much earli­er than many oth­er Asi­an coun­tries, arrival num­bers have slowly star­ted pick­ing up since August 2021. Espe­cially since quar­ant­ine require­ments lif­ted for fully vac­cin­ated tour­ists from Octo­ber, demand has kept increas­ing.  Khiri Travel Sri Lanka anti­cip­ated increas­ing demand for more sus­tain­able and off-the-beaten-track exper­i­ences and […]

Read More Khiri Travel Sri Lanka reaps rewards for designing sustainable experiences