The Rise of Regenerative Travel: Redefining Tourism For A Sustainable Future

Over the last few decades, tourism didn’t earn the best reputation. Interference with nature led to habitat loss, degradation of resources, wildlife exploitation, soil erosion, global CO₂ emissions (10% of all global GHGs, to be exact), and the dangers of commodification of culture through tourism, where traditional artifacts and cultural traditions are sold for profit.

But it’s not all bad. After all, 10.5% of the world’s workforce is employed by tourism and it remains one of the best ways to transfer wealth, protect ecosystems, and benefit communities if done consciously.

Becoming a regenerative traveler helps us to further embrace sustainable living—and to have daily interaction with the world through this belief system.

Whether it goes by the name regenerative travel, restorative travel, or regenerative tourism, the concept is rooted in the concepts of regenerative development and design and regenerative agriculture, which aims to restore soils and sequester carbon. It marries these with important human standards like livelihood and community identity.

To sum it up in a succinct regenerative tourism definition:

A sustainable approach to tourism that aims to restore, replenish, and enhance the natural, cultural, and social environments of a destination. It goes beyond minimizing negative impacts and focuses on actively creating positive contributions to local ecosystems, communities, and economies.

One company helping to expand the ethos is Estonia-based regenerative travel company Mon Mon Travel, founded by Moonika Apart. According to Moonika, “The regenerative travel meaning is taking it one step further from just being sustainable. When sustainable travel is leaving a lighter footprint, then regenerative travel essentially is leaving a better footprint. […] It’s a mindful travel that gives back, leaving destinations better and brighter for future visitors.”

In other words, we want to leave a place we travel to better than the way we found it. And that means: no overtourism, greener tourism, and more aware tourism.

Regeneration focuses on restoration of ecosystems and local communities in an ongoing capacity, with a symbiotic relationship established between locals and travel industry to create a net positive impact, reverse climate change, respect wildlife, benefit community, allow resources to thrive, and to ensure a happy future for residents and their neighboring ecosystems alike.

It also does this through the concept of a zero waste or circular economy, which designs waste out of the system, by keeping materials in use through repair, reuse, and upcycling, and regenerates natural systems.

While it may sound similar to sustainable tourism, there are important developments and differences that make regenerative tourism examples worth exploring.

Let’s not kid ourselves, treading lightly and following sustainable travel tips are still important. They aim to counterbalance the environmental and social aspects of tourism and care to not make a mess of the place. But along with creating less harm, tourism must create more benefits by improving—not merely protecting—the communities and environments we visit.

Saying we simply should maintain a place at its bare minimum, or that we should travel less as a solution is not realistic, given that so many destinations rely on tourism as their lifeblood. This has never been more obvious than the catastrophic fallout while travel was halted in 2020-2021 for many places worldwide.

Instead, individuals can support conscious businesses that make a positive effect through community initiatives and ecology-focused solutions that sequester carbon and foster local community-based development.

The fundamental difference of regenerative traveling from sustainable traveling, then, is the triad of its core values extending beyond maintenance:

1. Environmental regeneration
2. Community empowerment
3. Cultural enrichment

So while sustainable travel aims to take as little as possible from visited places, its regenerative companion also seeks to give back to these places. It positively challenges visitors to add value to the place, help improve the environment, and increase the destination’s quality of life.

In simple terms, instead of ‘leave it how you found it’, it asks travelers to ‘leave it better than you found it’.

At the heart of regenerative tourism is positively transformative social and environmental impact that can ameliorate and add value to local structures and environments, enabling them to thrive. Because, despite the tourism industry generating some $8 trillion globally, local communities still receive hardly a fraction.

The main characteristics of regenerative tourism include carbon-negative initiatives, wildlife conservation, and collaboration with the local community to do good. Because remember, all of us in the travel ecosystem – governments, businesses, destination locals, and travelers alike – have to ensure travel feeds back into the system..

None of this has to come at the expense of business success.

While traditional travel has its roots in colonial notions of extraction, exploitation, and consumption, this new model is based on our level of consciousness to bring benefits to destinations, their wildlife, and locals. It functions by giving the environment and local peoples the same importance as money: the triple bottom line principle of people, planet and profit.

Regenerative Principles For Travelers

• Helps to conserve and restore ecosystems and natural resources
• Benefits local communities (generating sustainable livelihoods and income opportunities)
• Helps to protect and celebrate unique cultural identities and traditions of a destination (supporting traditional arts and practices)
• Visiting offseason helps with year round employment and income
• Visits are educational and involve learning about the destination’s ecological and cultural significance

Here are some interesting examples of regenerative tourism companies, regenerative resorts, host communities, and tourism management.

Regenerative Travel

Regenerative Travel is the first “value-led online travel agency”, founded by passionate regenerative tourism advocate Amanda Ho. They offer fifty plus different luxury hotels and resorts on their roster providing regenerative traveling experiences using these standards and criteria:

• Independent hotels
• Honor sense of place
• Provide authentic hospitality
• Inclusive / egalitarian
• Operate responsibly / ethically
• Respect local and global ecosystems
• Communicate regenerative values and practices

All members commit to data collection, sharing of best practices, and benchmarking tools through a streamlined technology solution (using third-party data collection tool Greenview) with analytics and reporting.

Mon Mon Travel

Mon Mon serves Baltic Scandinavia with a philosophy to exclusively partner with small, locally owned suppliers. To ensure real economic benefits for locals, it’s not about the lowest possible price for customers, but about creating a positive effect with an enriching and authentic travel experience.

Using animals in tourism is another big issue (especially in Lapland) and Mon Mon does extensive research to make sure the farms are sustainable and animals are treated well.

They’re also helping with deforestation via a local clean-tech startup. For each traveler, a tree is planted.

Fogo Island Inn

A pioneer of regenerative tourism examples in accommodation, Newfoundland’s Fogo Island Inn offers real, holistic immersion for travelers into cultural preservation and community development in a striking natural landscape. From the moment tourists arrive, they are embraced by the rugged, remote community, who are involved through the Community Hosting team who guide and advise on excursions.

Fogo Island Inn is entirely owned by a charity called Shorefast, who secure a resilient culture and economy for future generations, with 100% of profits being reinvested. There is zero private gain.

Through the building and operations, the Inn surpasses environmental standards and is ranked the third best hotel in the world by Travel + Leisure.

Basata Eco-Lodge

A stand-out low impact, regenerative resort embodying responsible tourism is Basata Eco-Lodge in South Sinai, Egypt. Basata means “simplicity” in Arabic, and it’s the physical manifestation of co-founder Sherif El-Ghamrawy’s deep connection with the spirit of nature.

The resort serves as a direct response to nearby mass development and chain hotels destroying the Red Sea, instead focusing on local community, eco-building, and environmental preservation. Examples of Basata’s stewardship and regenerative practices include:

• Guest huts are eco-friendly and build of local mud, straw, clay
• Sea water is used for flushing toilets
• Desalinated water is used for showers and sinks, which then gets reused around property for gardens
• No boating, diving, fishing allowed to preserve local coral reefs… only locally guided snorkeling tours
• Serves needs of locals and employs many local Bedouins
• Has a school, mosque, farm, greenhouse
• Works with NGO Hemaya to collect and sort waste to recycle in Cairo

New Zealand

An example of a government taking initiative to expand regenerative tourism., NZ’s national tourism organization aims for success measures at the well-being of the country, and considers nature, human health and community identities.

NZ invites all visitors who arrive to take the Tiaki promise to care for New Zealand—the people, culture, land, sea, and nature. This is a huge shift in values at the governmental level, which we hope to see trickle down.

While the onus is first on the travel industry to educate and inspire people about how and why they should travel in a regenerative manner, what can we as individuals do to shift the paradigm?

Even the smallest-seeming actions can accrue a hugely positive impact. Ask questions. Do research. Do your very best to ensure that tours, accommodations, and travel providers demonstrate how they contribute to the environment and local community to fuel regeneration. Here are some helpful questions to ask:

• How was the hotel built? How does it operate? Are there environmental policies in place?
• How are staff treated, paid, and supported?
• Are visitors presented with green choices like kayaks or bikes?
• How is the surrounding environment protected and regenerated?
• How does the hotel support the neighboring community?
• What is the measure of success? Community and natural environment, or only fiscal success?

Look beyond accomodation and location, too, considering what you’ll be doing on your trip and how you can give back through your chosen activities. If you love safaris, get involved in helping science researchers instead of plowing through grasslands in Jeeps. Are you scuba certified? How about coral restoration or trash diving?

If you’re an outdoor enthusiast, help with trail maintenance or native species restoration through the Sierra Club in gorgeous getaway locations, and always incorporate the Leave No Trace principles on your next eco camping trip.

Before you go, research things like recycling and waste infrastructure, water use and shortages, and sensitivity to fragile natural ecosystems. Choose responsible businesses, travel slower and for longer, and spend your money on locally owned or produced authentic experiences.

And don’t forget to use carbon offset programs to offset your trip!

In spite of its bad rap, travel can be a force for good, peace, and poverty alleviation.

Regenerative tourism has rapidly expanded the last few years amidst global warming, climate change concerns, and the impact of the pandemic. Its focus is sharpening thanks to governments and the tourism industry’s hotels, travel and tour agencies, consumer watch groups, and consumers themselves.

When the NYT first reported on the regenerative traveling trend in August 2020, just 20 travel groups had pledged to support the principles of the Future of Tourism Coalition. Now, over 600 organizations have signed on, and the coalition had its first in-person summit.

82% of Virtuoso travelers polled said the past few years made them want to travel more responsibly. The problem is still that many don’t know how.

Another current barrier to access is the price point. Beyond luxury travel, it also must scale to backpacker travel, cruises, and more, with the impact of air travel likewise being addressed. But regenerative tourism doesn’t have to cost more. Many community and environmentally friendly business practices actually save money, attract new customers, and gain access to government subsidies.

Eco-tourism companies and programs like Intrepid, G Adventures, WWOOFing, and Workaway currently provide community-based travel and regenerative tourism at a lower price point.

Now, to move the movement forward, we need to not only spread education about what regenerative tourism is, but travelers need to keep pressuring the industry that greener, more restorative models of travel are what we’re after. After all, just like shopping, how you travel is a vote toward your principles.