Day: 25 February 2026

There are several principles for regenerative tourism development described, which are used in the first place to understand and inspire regenerative development (read more about them here). These principles are sometimes also placed alongside initiatives or projects to assess how regenerative they are. However, in my view, it differs per level which regenerative principles are most relevant and practical to implement. Not all levels can equally address these six principles, and it might not always be fair to expect them to do so. Below, I have laid out what I believe each level (destination level, local communities and entrepreneurs, and larger travel companies) can contribute to the regenerative transition in tourism and how.

Destination level
This level includes destination management organisations (DMOs), local governments, regions, provinces, and other destination governance levels. As most bodies at this level work at the destination level, it makes sense that much of the work is done on place development, taking a broader and more overarching approach that encompasses the whole destination. Taking that as a starting point, the most important focal points for regenerative development at this level are: working on systemic change, integrating tourism as part of a broader system where prosperity is prioritized over growth, monitoring net positive impact, and using an ecological worldview. Of course, for place development, it is also important to include the community, entrepreneurs, and businesses. However, for most destinations, it is not realistic to speak to eachcommunity member, especially in larger destinations. It is therefore important to be in interaction with as many community members as possible, and know what is happening and needed in the destination. At the same time, it is important to realize that most of the local work is done locally, where specific projects from a local entrepreneur are usually best tailored to interact with the environment and adapt to the community in that area. However, with an overall strategy and alignment with other partners, systemic change can be worked on from this level while inspiring others to do the more local work in a regenerative way at the local level.

The destination governance level is furthermore eminently suitable for taking the lead in broader tourism system change. It also has the capacity to develop a tourism structure that allows for broader prosperity. This level can identify the broader goals a destination has and create a coherent framework to work towards those goals through tourism. More concretely, this means prioritizing ecological and social values over growth. Instead of striving to attract as many visitors as possible, tourism strategies are connected with other related or relevant fields in the destination to work towards shared ambitions. Another related task for the governance is to monitor the net positive impact on the destination level, where it can be ensured that the sum of projects and initiatives is positive while reducing negative impacts. This includes developing infrastructure that enables this, which smaller businesses have less influence on, like improving public transport or waste management.

Examples of actions that can be taken at this level are bringing people together, starting conversations, connecting partners, facilitate collaboration, creating a coherent and appealing story that invites people to join in, provide tools, knowledge and (financial) resources – to those who want to get started, support in law making and developing regulations that support regenerative initiatives and share progress and learning points as well as highlighting regenerative initiatives to inspire others.

Who are taking steps?
Visit Canada
Visit Wadden, the Netherlands
Provincie Zuid-Holland, the Netherlands
Catalan Tourist Board and Catalan Government, Spain
Mechelen, Flanders, Belgium

Local level: local entrepreneurs and communities
This level consists of local entrepreneurs and residents and is therefore also very much locally embedded. For this reason, the main focus of regenerative development is linked to place-based development and community engagement, because these people make up the place and community, and therefore also best know what is going on in the community. It is important at this level that local residents are involved in the process and that the development of projects and initiatives is based on local knowledge, desires, and needs. As it is clear that local impact happens at this level, I see the net positive impact, therefore, as an important element of regenerative development here. This can be done by working on reducing the negative impact and increasing the positive impact of that specific project or business. From that perspective, embracing an ecological worldview to a certain extent is also of importance to ensure that not only human interests are considered, but that they are considered in relation to the natural world.

We cannot expect individual entrepreneurs and community members to work on the net positive impact and integrate an ecological worldview for the destination level as a whole because much of that is out of their hands. More important is that these principles are understood, and, where possible, applied to the initiative so that, jointly, this will contribute to a net positive impact. For some projects, it will be more relevant to focus on social elements (for example, a small locally run hotel that also serves as a meeting place for the community) while also considering environmental impacts, and for others, the focus will be reversed. This does not mean that an initiative cannot be considered regenerative if not all elements are included, as long as the focus is clear and steps towards regenerative thinking are included as much as possible.

More specifically, this means that the role of local entrepreneurs is to be in contact with other entrepreneurs and residents, adapt to the community and natural interests, and make a positive impact in both areas with their tourism project or business. They are the ones initiating and developing locally embedded projects, for which, at times, they need support from the destination level to make the project come alive, either in terms of resources, knowledge, tools, or regulations. This level is important because people in this level are working on the actual change in practice, and we need the examples from pioneers who are experimenting with regenerative thinking in tourism. By setting an example, they also work on systemic change by inspiring others with their regenerative projects, but usually, this is not their main focus.

Who are taking steps?
The following three initiatives have been evaluated in detail by the Regenera4MED project. If you would like to know more about the different regenerative elements, check out this document.
Cerdanya Viva, Spain
Cammino nelle terre mutate, Italy
Playa Viva, Mexico

If you would like more information about regenerative elements of the three initiatives below, you can check out this article (in Dutch) on Better Places Travel.
Hotel Aquae Sinsis, Italy
Tierra del Volcan, Ecuador
Residence Madalief, Madagascar

Larger travel companies and tour operators
In this category, we find larger travel companies such as big hotel (chains), travel agencies, and tour operators. Usually less embedded in local life, this is exactly what companies should be focusing on. An important role for them is to create connections with local communities and entrepreneurs to be more embedded in what is happening locally and to see how they can contribute to that. An important element of their work towards working more regeneratively is getting a better sense of what is happening locally and how they could contribute to that by working in a more place-based way. While doing so, it is of course important to also focus on creating a net positive impact locally (in social, cultural, and ecological ways) and on reducing as much as possible the negative impact of their own activities. As a larger organisation, part of a larger network of industry players, there is usually more leverage to drive systemic change within the sector. This can be done, for example, by inspiring others to take similar steps toward regenerative thinking and encouraging tourists to change their travel behaviour.

Specific actions that could be taken are working with locals for positive impact and connecting it with their needs and desires, including regenerative accommodations and excursions in the travel offer, stimulate lower impact travel, donating parts of the profit to community projects, and setting an example and lobbying to negotiate sector-wide change.

Who are taking steps?
Accommodation:
Fairbnb, Europe
The Usual, Rotterdam & Brussels

Travel companies (more info can be found here):
Planeterra
Much Better Adventures
Better Places Travel
Intrepid travel

Working towards regeneration together
Ideally, each level applies all principles to some extent. But I do not think it is realistic for a small-scale local tourism project to pursue systemic change the same way a government or DMO could, or for a DMO to be as locally embedded as a local entrepreneur. Most important is that the regenerative mindset is there and that its principles are embraced and supported, and implemented to the extent possible for each initiative or governance level. Key to working regeneratively in tourism is also collaboration between the different levels. All levels are needed to jointly work on all regenerative principles, but each with its own focus. And above all, each level needs to start, to take steps, and inspire others, even when not yet perfect or fully worked out. Regeneration is a process, not an end goal.

You probably have heard the ‘leaving a place better than it was’ or ‘making a net positive impact’, but there is much more to regenerative tourism. It is about restoring people, places, and nature. Indeed, making a positive impact for all while reducing the negative impact as much as possible. But to be able to do this, a new way of thinking in tourism is necessary, which asks for a lot more than simply making a positive impact. Roughly six principles can be extracted from conversations about regenerative tourism development that are needed for this. I discuss them below.

1. Net positive impact
Alright, let’s start with the most heard and also most misused principle from regenerative tourism: net positive impact. As I already mentioned in the introduction, making a net positive impact is more than just doing something positive or doing something good. It is about reducing the negative impact as much as possible and, in addition, making a positive impact – the doing good part. It is the sum of its parts. Picking up trash from beaches as part of a hotel program is good, but not necessarily regenerative – and not even net positive. To make something net positive, first, different types of negative impacts would have to be reduced, for example using less plastic in the hotel itself and inspiring others in the area to reduce plastic usage. Only then would the addition of beach-clean ups would have an additional positive effect. To make it regenerative, the principles described below would also need to be implemented to some extent. Reducing plastic is great, but what if there is no connection with the local community?

2. Starting from place and the local community
This brings us directly to the next principle of regenerative development, which, in my view, is often overlooked or diminished: connecting with place and the local community. Instead of wondering what tourism brings to a place, the question is reversed. What does this place need? What are the desires of the local community, and what does the physical place need? Is there a way tourism can contribute to that? I’m not only talking about human interests here; regenerative tourism development is as much about the interests of the natural world, which, in regenerative development, is considered to be intrinsically linked to the human (see also principle 5). It is about asking the local community ánd paying close attention to the surroundings. The local community is not a passive actor in this process but has an active role; they are involved from the start as collaborators to learn from and work with, making them part of the whole process. In that sense, regenerative tourism development is very much a place-based and community-driven process. Without community involvement and connecting to place-based interests, an initiative cannot be considered regenerative.

3. Prioritizing prosperity over growth
In regenerative development, growth is not a priority – social and ecological values are. Using a regenerative lens means investing in the well-being of people and places in the broadest sense of the word. This means that when it comes to the people, planet, profit balance, profit is part of the people element and not a factor weighing in on its own. At the same time, growth is not forbidden, but secondary to other goals. If a certain development is desired at a destination, let’s say an increase in facilities for residents, tourism growth could be a way to achieve this. At the same time, if there is much visitor pressure in a place already, either in terms of social pressure or on natural areas, it might be wise not to focus on growth but instead restore these social or ecological elements.

4. Seeing tourism as being part of a broader system
In regenerative tourism, tourism is seen as part of a broader system. It is not an isolated sector but a system that is embedded in many others. They are interdependent, work in collaboration, and exchange with other sectors and levels of governance. In regenerative tourism, it is important to include this systemic thinking in our way of doing. This could be thinking beyond the tourism sector and include connections and interdependencies with agriculture, infrastructure, the built environment, food systems, and so on. But it could also mean including different levels of governance and that the impact beyond one’s own operations is considered, for example, by looking at the impact at the municipal, regional, national, or even global level. This also means that the positive impact of tourism goes beyond the tourism sector or the specific tourist organisation, but instead has a positive spillover effect on many other areas and levels as well.

5. Integrating an ecological worldview
Very much related to the previous point is integrating an ecological worldview where tourism is seen as part of a larger, in this case, living system. Regenerative development embraces an ecological worldview where a place (destination) is seen as a living system, a way of thinking and living that originates from Indigenous practices. Part of this worldview is that there is no separation between us and nature. This means considering the interests of nature equally to those of humans, as one does not yield a higher interest than the other, as essentially they are the same. This means that when we do good for nature, we also do good for humans, and vice versa. In practice, we can cultivate this way of thinking and doing, for example, by trying to give nature a voice by asking: if I were to develop this project, how would nature feel about it? Or, how can we align what we do with the rhythm of nature?

6. Contributing to systemic change in tourism
By reading all of the above principles, it might have occurred to you already: something needs to change – the (tourism) system needs to change, which brings us to the last principle. In regenerative tourism, it is not only about practicing what you preach in terms of your own business or project, but also about setting in motion change on a larger scale. Currently, much of the tourism system is still based on traditional, market-driven models that prioritize the tourist over place and local people. To change tourism as a whole, systemic change is needed in which this growth-based thinking is replaced with a form of tourism that focuses on the principles above: it is place-based and connects with local people and the environment. It may sound abstract and complex to work on systemic change, but in practice, it can have many different forms, and you can, of course, start small. It could mean, for example, lobbying for political change or sharing knowledge and tools, but also setting up a network of people working towards the same goal and setting an example for others. All those steps together will eventually lead to a transition in the tourism system.

Many of these insights are based on previous work from regenerative practitioners and researchers. Want to know more? Check out the work of these women. Anna Pollock, Dianne Dredge, Loreta Belatto, Michelle Holliday

Different roles in the regenerative tourism transition

Key principles for regenerative thinking in tourism