9.10 The Evolution of Regenerative Tourism

At its core, regenerative tourism calls for approaching destinations as living ecosystems with communities that deserve to determine the scope of tourism to their region. In doing so, regenerative systems work to avoid or correct the [KT]overtourism[KT] and [KT]extractive[KT] tourism that damage the landscapes, marine ecosystems, cultural integrity, and the community spirit of destinations. The EU’s adoption of closed-loop systems into its development plan shows just one of many ways that regenerative systems have begun to transform tourism. Regenerative proponents argue that the push toward sustainability has failed, in large part, because it seeks to enable tourism within a destination to continue in the future and to ideally do no harm. Tourism, they argue, can do far more. It can restore, preserve, and enhance the wellbeing of ecological systems and the communities embedded within them.

Regenerative tourism offers a framework, or belief system, that draws heavily from Indigenous worldviews that conceptualize nature as an elder and as a relative. Indigenous cultures perceive nature and her myriad elements as human caretakers and as models for how humans can achieve balance and wellbeing. A regenerative worldview sees non-humans as equal in stature to humans. As Potawatomi botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer explains:

In the Western tradition there’s a recognized hierarchy of beings, with, of course, the human being on top — the pinnacle of evolution, the darling of Creation — and the plants at the bottom. But in Native ways of knowing, human people are often referred to as ‘the younger brothers of Creation.’ We say that humans have the least experience with how to live and thus the most to learn — we must look to our teachers among the other species for guidance. Their wisdom is apparent in the way that they live. They teach us by example. (2015, p. 9)

Whereas Native Americans were removed from state parks to make way for tourists, today Indigenous wisdom is being embedded within tourism in order to rescue it as a system, to correct the overtourism that contributes to global warming and degrades the beauty and health of the places travelers journey. The term ‘last chance tourism,’ for example, has been coined to designate travel to those places being threatened by or facing imminent extinction. Created to uphold and promote the 17 sustainable development goals of the World Charter for Sustainable Tourism [see Figure 2], the Responsible Tourism Institute explains
ironically, visiting destinations threatened by climate change can accelerate the very changes that endanger them.

One striking example is the polar bear. Rising interest in polar and glacial regions has spurred tourism to these fragile ecosystems. Churchill, Canada, one of the last places to observe polar bears in their natural habitat, has seen a surge in visitors hoping to see the animals before their populations decline. Yet, the journey often involves significant air travel, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and worsens climate change. (2025, paras. 8–9)

In response to the degradation of the environment, including the frozen habitats of polar bears, key fields have begun to experiment with and adopt regenerative systems capable of self-renewal. Regenerative thinking and practices have been successfully implemented in agriculture, architecture, and design. In agriculture, for example, regenerative systems “focus on restoring the productivity and function of the ecosystem in contrast with conventional agriculture, which exploits soils, depletes nutrients and reduces soil quality” (Inversini et al., 2024, p. 8).

Regenerative agriculture took root in the 1970s in the form of permaculture—a design system that approaches land as an ecosystem whose health depends on biodiversity. According to the Permaculture Institute, “permaculture is a design approach that uses an understanding of natural and social systems to generate holistic design solutions that create mutually beneficial synergies. This way of approaching change is rooted in Indigenous knowledge, empirical science, and the design processes” (Permaculture Institute, 2025, para.1). Whereas permaculture refers to a design process that aims to create sustainable systems based on ecological principles that help an ecosystem achieve and maintain self-sufficiency, regenerative agriculture applies permaculture design principles to agricultural practices. The Regenerative Farmers of America explain that this practice

is a farming method that focuses on improving the health of the soil. It involves practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and reduced tillage to rebuild and regenerate the soil.

Regenerative agriculture aims to create a system that is not only sustainable but also regenerative. It is based on the idea that agriculture can be used to improve the health of the soil, sequester carbon, and improve the overall health of the ecosystem. (n.d., paras. 4-5)

In sum, regenerative tourism, like regenerative farming, operates with the express goal of improving the health of destination ecosystems.

As one study on “Regenerative Tourism: Opportunities and Challenges” explains, this type of tourism

incorporates the concepts of circular economy through a variety of networks and relationships taking place in the tourism space…. and [understands] placemaking as a set of practices and processes for the transformation of the environments in which the people inhabit, travel and work. (Sharma & Tham, 2023, p. 16)

Three leading researchers and practitioners in the regenerative tourism movement, Dianne Dredge, Anna Pollock, and Loren Bellato work with individuals, organizations, destinations, and businesses to establish regenerative tourism goals and to support their implementation. One core element of regenerative systems entails understanding the needs of a specific environment and its residents. Each destination is approached as a unique living system made up of various networks and ecosystems. Regenerative development identifies local problems and works to provide a solution designed specifically for a given place.

A former professor of tourism planning and policy, Dredge founded the Tourism CoLab in 2019 with the express goal of helping communities and organisations develop and implement regenerative tourism plans and practices. The CoLab has used Flinders Island in Tasmania to test and innovate regenerative systems. Loretta Bellato, who earned her doctorate in regenerative development and tourism, works with recent graduates from the Regenesis Group, which provides educational and management support for clients working on regenerative planning and community development initiatives. Bellato helps graduates gain on-the-ground skills as regenerative systems practitioners.

Having started work in tourism in Canada during the 1970s, Anna Pollock created the resource hub and blog Conscious Travel to educate readers about the regenerative systems’ approach to travel. Having worked in tourism for fifty years, Pollock explains that the industrial mass model on which traditional tourism no longer works because

it generates diminishing returns for all participants. Less and less income “trickles down” to the resident population that often has to pay for the “externalities” avoided by those companies that generate much of the profit. Furthermore, host communities (residents) have little direct say in the scope, nature, scale or pace of the tourism development and growth. (Sustainability Leaders United, 2016, paras. 15-16)

Pollock founded Conscious Travel in 2011 to help shift the tourism industry into living systems thinking and toward an ecocentric worldview that places the wellbeing of humans and nature above profit.

In their 2023 article “Regenerative Tourism: A State-of-the-Art Review,” Bellato and Pollock explain:

the regenerative design and development theme entails approaches that draw from the unique potential of place and its communities and develop the capability of humans to align with and contribute to healthy living systems. Tourism is consequently positioned as a contributor to the overall health and wellbeing of places and communities. (pp. 4–5)

Regenerative design calls for approaching a given place as a living system and understanding “that the unique spirit of a place cannot be defined but can only be expressed; it can only be lived and shared by those for whom it is home. It too has the properties of a living system” (Pollock, 2019, Attribute 5).

[BEGIN ILLUSTRATION OF KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR SECTION 9.10]
Key Takeaway
Regenerative tourism reimagines destinations as living ecosystems that provide local communities the agency to define how tourism unfolds, aiming not merely to sustain but also to actively heal and enhance the ecological, cultural, and social wellbeing of a given place.
Significance to Regenerative Tourism
Unlike sustainability, which often focuses on minimizing harm, regenerative tourism seeks to restore ecosystems, empower local communities, and align human activity so that it regenerates the health of living ecosystems.
Significance to Tourism
For tourism, this paradigm shift means moving beyond profit-driven, extractive models toward practices that respect each place’s unique spirit, mitigate overtourism, foster local stewardship, and transform tourism into a regenerative force that benefits the environment and promotes biodiversity.
[END KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR SECTION 9.10]

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