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.

No invitation required: Hedonic sustainability & meaningful tourism

June 28, 2022
One Comment

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

“GT” Insight Bites: Diverse perspectives on economic degrowth and tourism

June 21, 2022

Tourism and economic degrowth. Is the only sustainable growth degrowth? Stencil wall by kamiel79 (CC0) and question mark overlay by kropekk_pl (CC0) both via Pixabay.

Tour­ism in the post-pan­­dem­ic ‘new nor­mal’ should be informed by eco­nom­ic degrowth, say some tour­ism aca­dem­ics and industry com­ment­at­ors who believe we can and should con­sume — and travel — less. If you are an aca­dem­ic or com­ment­at­or, how would you sum­mar­ise your views on degrowth for a gen­er­al industry audi­ence? If you are a travel & tour­ism practitioner, […]

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Ourselves, others, nature: The three relationships in regenerative tourism

June 14, 2022

Ourselves, others, nature: The three relationships in regenerative tourism. Image by sasint (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-kid-rain-leaf-umbrella-1807533/

At a women’s retreat that starts soon, Sonia Ter­uel would like par­ti­cipants to “rein­force [their] fem­in­ine essence, and to flow with life and the nat­ur­al cycles” so as to more effect­ively work on the three rela­tion­ships of regen­er­a­tion (and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism). In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ms Ter­uel describes the three rela­tion­ships. [You too can write […]

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From dystopia, utopia: COVID-19, collapse, and new hope for tourism’s future

January 25, 2022

Does COVID-19 represent a turning point for tourism? Image by geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/signpost-waypoint-hope-hopelessness-466935/

Through the lens of sci­ence fic­tion, his own writ­ings about travel & tour­ism, and the mus­ings of con­tem­por­ary thinkers, tour­ism futur­ist Ian Yeo­man won­ders wheth­er the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic rep­res­ents a turn­ing point for our industry. If so, which path will we take? Dr Yeo­man is hope­ful. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight.  [Thanks to Jim Butcher for inviting […]

Read More From dystopia, utopia: COVID-19, collapse, and new hope for tourism’s future

Top five most visited “GT” Insights & “GT” Travel Experiences of 2021 (& all time)

December 21, 2021

Five! Image by yohoprashant (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/photos/colorful-five-fingers-kid-fingers-4043709/

Most of the past year — two years — has been ter­ribly tough for many; espe­cially travel & tour­ism people.  I can’t really say much more about it than I said at the cor­res­pond­ing time last year:  Good rid­dance 2021 … 2022 had bet­ter be bet­ter … blah blah … But, as I wrote at the end of 2020, it’s import­ant to […]

Read More Top five most visited “GT” Insights & “GT” Travel Experiences of 2021 (& all time)