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.

A green way of life: Luang Prabang View, Laos


How to make a hotel green & responsible: Just do it!

Some may struggle with the costs of sus­tain­able prac­tices, but former Luang Pra­bang View Hotel Gen­er­al Man­ager John Wil­li­ams sees going green as a way of life … while sav­ing green­backs along the way.  This is the third Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Laos Show­case by “Good Tour­ism” Des­tin­a­tion Part­ner WeAre­Lao. Mr Wil­li­ams grew up in a rur­al town, where […]

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High value, low volume tourism: Is Bhutan’s old normal the world’s new normal?

April 6, 2021
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Bhutanese boys in traditional attire. Image (c) Dorji Dhradhul.

While some places adopt Bhutan’s Gross Nation­al Hap­pi­ness, the King­dom’s tour­ism offi­cials would be happy for the world to emu­late its ‘high value, low volume’ tour­ism policy too. Dorji Dhradhul, dir­ect­or-gen­er­­al of the Tour­ism Coun­cil of Bhutan, dis­cusses it in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. Lead­er­ship is all about decid­ing what to do and then doing […]

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Planning tourism with purpose & love in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty

March 25, 2021
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Planning tourism with purpose & love in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty

Kristin Dun­ne’s “eyes were opened” to pos­sib­il­it­ies for travel & tour­ism that she could not ignore; pos­sib­il­it­ies based on pur­pose, place, and pas­sion­ate people. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, the des­tin­a­tion man­ager shares Tour­ism Bay of Plenty’s Te Hā Tāpoi | The Love of Tour­ism. Kia ora koutou from Aotearoa (New Zea­l­and). I am privileged […]

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Taming the beautiful monster: What ‘critical tourism studies’ means to me

March 23, 2021
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Dragon's eye. Image by Victoria_Borodinova (CC0) via Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/illustrations/dragon-fantasy-eye-3916633/

Some observ­ers of the ‘cul­ture wars’ in the west will be sus­pi­cious of the word ‘crit­ic­al’ in aca­dem­ic con­texts due to con­tro­ver­sial ‘crit­ic­al the­ory’ and its influ­ence. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Meghan L Mul­doon explains what ‘crit­ic­al tour­ism stud­ies’ means to her. (And can a crit­ic­al tour­ism schol­ar love trav­el­ling? Dr Mul­doon does.) [Thanks to […]

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Going local: Riverside Boutique Resort, Vang Vieng, Laos


A meal with a Vang Vieng view Riverside Boutique Resort, Vang Vieng, Laos

Sus­tain­able exper­i­ences reach into themed rooms at the River­side Boutique Resort in Vang Vieng, Laos while Gen­er­al Man­ager Math­ieu Thaer­on cuts con­sump­tion by rely­ing on com­mon sense and a clued-in staff. This is the second Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Laos Show­case by “Good Tour­ism” Des­tin­a­tion Part­ner WeAre­Lao. Today’s trav­el­lers demand sus­tain­ab­il­ity and authen­t­ic exper­i­ences. River­side deliv­ers both.  “The moment […]

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Travel & tourism’s ‘critical’ rethink and its imperative shift to circular economics

February 18, 2021
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Maya Bay, Koh Phi Phi Leh, Thailand in 2014. By 2017, tsome 3,500 people visited the beach made famous by The Beach. Image by Nicolas Vollmer (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maya_Bay_boats.jpg overlaid by a question mark by geralt (CC0) via Pixabay. https://www.freeimg.net/photo/1633662/questionmark-who-where-how

For the sake of grow­ing well-being and shar­ing the tour­ism com­mons with the great­er major­ity, cir­cu­lar eco­nom­ic approaches to travel & tour­ism must replace neo­lib­er­al cap­it­al­ist growth mod­els. To make that argu­ment, research­er Phoebe Ever­ing­ham takes a crit­ic­al the­or­et­ic­al approach. It’s a “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [Thanks to Joseph M Cheer for invit­ing Dr Ever­ing­ham to […]

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