What is Regenerative Tourism?

Is a kind of tourism that values sustainability possible? Is it possible to make the world a better place while traveling? The answers to these two questions are revealed in the concept of “Regenerative Tourism.”

We know that people always have had the desire to get to know and explore the world they live in since ancient times. People travel not only to explore unknown places and build new business relations, but also to have fun. The best example of the desire to travel from history would be the first Olympic Games organized in Delphi in 776 BC. Thousands of people from overseas colonies and all-around Greece came to Mount Parnassus in order to participate in the contests or to enter into the holy region. Maybe the first tourism movement of the world and first travelers are the ones who traveled to watch the Olympic Games.

Since those days, tourism has become one of the most significant economic sectors. Going to a place different than the place of residence, being interested in the history, culture of nature of the destination all led to people traveling from one end of the world to the other. However, tourism today has negative environmental impacts as well. And regenerative tourism approach comes to the fore exactly at this point.

Check out our article to learn more about sustainable tourism trends.​

So what is this regenerative tourism exactly?

Let’s check it out.

Why is Regenerative Tourism Needed?

No traveler would like to travel to damaged, destroyed, polluted places. However, most of the destinations which host thousands of tourists every year are being rapidly destroyed.

For example, this destruction reached the highest level in Reading Festival in Britain in 2023. Three-day long concerts were organized during the festival. Following the concerts, the festival area was covered with thousands of abandoned tents. Each square meter of the festival area was covered with tons of garbage. According to a study, 875 tons of plastic waste are generated only during festivals in Britain. The world was shaken with the images of green areas covered completely with waste, like a carpet. Media photos, municipality cameras and drone footage showed the world the waste crisis, pollution, garbage, abandoned tents and waste left in the fields in Reading city in Britain following the three-day music festival. Events developed to such an extent that tourism was prohibited in certain areas in the region.

Another dramatic case is Koh Tachai, a heavenly island in Thailand, where natural resources were destroyed in a short time such as five years and natural resources reached to a point of complete exhaustion. The biological diversity of Koh Tachai Island was almost completely destroyed after high rates of touristic activities. Hence, the Thailand government closed the island to tourism indefinitely.

Another case was experienced in 2015 in Costa Rica where a tourism wave thwart hundreds of thousands of sea turtles to lay their eggs on the beaches.

Baby dolphins are captured and exhibited to get the attention of curious tourists and then left to die in many touristic places on the coasts of oceans across the world. Many court cases filed by nongovernmental organizations working to protect the environment are ongoing at several locations.

Showing the destruction caused by tourism on the screens in the most capturing way, The Venice Syndrome (2012) documentary presents the damaging perspective of tourism. Showing us how the cities become inhabitable in just a few years via the case of Venice City, the documentary tells the story of how a touristic attraction center was damaged. The documentary depicts what remains today from a life in the historical lagoon city and focuses on the tourism services which create a sub-culture and how large passenger traffic destroyed the city.

Disproportioned price increases in Venice and the death of local businesses due to tourism led to many Venetians moving out of the city. Suffering from flooding incidents more and more every year, the city also faces the negative impacts of cruise tours and rising sea levels. The directors of “The Venice Syndrome” documentary emphasized that there would not be a city called Venice in the future during the speech they made in the premier. Today, Venice has become a theme park which had once been one of the most dynamic and significant centers for the Italian culture, arts, and economy for hundreds of years.

In short, tourism activities can have a negative impact on social development of the cities alongside the damage they cause on the environment. No matter how much development and economic power tourism can provide for the regions, it is a sector that tends to create regional problems and to destroy nature.

Rethinking Tourism

It is said that humans destroy everything they touch just like locusts, and this is what happens in many unique locations throughout the world. So, is it really possible to travel without harming the environment and culture? On the contrary, can tourism be beneficial to the places we travel to?

Unfortunately, tourism has always been considered as a money-making machine supported by the culture, history, gastronomy, and nature. However, it has been discovered in recent years that tourism can also add value to the sector with the concept of “sustainability.” We started to conceive of a tourism practice that is environmentally friendly, respectful to the culture and protect nature. And “regenerative tourism” based on sustainability and regeneration is such an approach.

Essentials of Regenerative Tourism

Regenerative tourism is a tourism approach that would contribute to the protection of destinations and improvement of the wellbeing of the regional communities beyond sustainable travel and exploration of new destinations. The purpose is to inspire the visitors to impact the destination in a positive manner. The main objective is for the visitors to create a positive impact on the holiday destinations and to leave these places in a better state than they found. It is a concept that aims to rejuvenate, protect, and regenerate the environment in an active manner instead of harming it, thus, to create a positive impact on the local people and local economy. Regenerative tourism involves “sustainable regeneration.”

In recent years, tourism leaders across the world have started to consider “regenerative tourism.” The concept of regenerative tourism has started to be acknowledged by tourism companies and holiday places/destinations.

Which Activities are Included in Regenerative Tourism?

The ways of regenerative tourism are as follows:

1- The first requirement of regenerative tourism is to provide balance for travel. Such as working with tourism companies that reduce their carbon footprints to protect the climate.

2- Selecting responsible agencies, tour operators and hotels for holiday reservations which have the lowest environmental impact or have a positive social, environmental, or economic impact on the local people.

3- Purchasing holiday packages from local businesses and corporations. Sustainability does not only mean protecting the environment, but also involves community-based progress. Therefore, respecting the culture and lifestyle of each community is a key factor in regenerative tourism. We should contribute to the local economy by shopping, renting services and participating in activities of local businesses in order for the local community in the destinations we travel to develop, to increase welfare and to sustain an honorable life.

4- Helping to clean up the environment during our stay at the destination and volunteering to rehabilitate it. Another way to help to reduce environmental pollution is to actively participate in cleaning up activities on beaches and in forests. The only thing we need to do is to bring with us a bag and spend a few minutes collecting the waste we find on the road when we go out walking.

5- Working for social projects in the destination that need support. For example, Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge cabins in Nepal are used to collect funds to complete the construction of additional classes. Travelers can make donations to the school while enjoying activities such as trekking in the breath-taking natural scenes.

The Significance of Regenerative Tourism

Going beyond the concept of ‘sustainable tourism,’ which focuses on neutralizing negative impacts of tourism on the planet, ‘regenerative tourism’ is based on making a positive impact on the local people and environment. Its successful practice requires a mindset change in terms of what holiday means in today’s changing society.