Norma Angélica Santiesteban López, Juan José Gómez Díaz
I. Summary
Regenerative tourism promotes a harmonious relationship between tourists, local communities, and the environment, aiming for sustainable and equitable development. In contrast to the environmental impact of conventional tourism, it proposes a model based on environmental awareness, participatory governance, and social justice. It integrates Indigenous knowledge, ecofeminism, agroecology, and circular economy, strengthening local identity and community resilience. Cases like New Zealand illustrate tra…
II. Development
Regenerative tourism is conceived as a systemic vision of mutual benefit between the tourist, the local resident, and the destination, achieving integration of the different components for a virtuous and organized outcome (Fusté-Forné & Hussain, 2022).
It is known that tourism contributes 1 in every 10 of global CO2 emissions (4.5 gigatons per year), composed of 50% in transport, 17% in food, and 12% derived from purchases made to meet visitor needs (UNWTO, 2023). Therefore, it is crucial to invest in sustainability at destinations to reduce environmental impact and share responsibility with tourists and visitors to move toward heritage-sustainable, socially equitable, and economically viable tourism development (Díaz & Leal, 2018).
As part of the experiential regenerative tourism paradigm, the tourist is seen as an active and conscious participant in tourism practice (Cheer, 2020), thus becoming an agent of change evolving alongside the place visited (Ateljevic, 2020). In this context, synergistic work is achieved in favor of environmental well-being, social contributions to host communities, preservation of cultural heritage, and economic integration of the various actors and service providers involved, anchored in a participator…
Ensuring local actors are actively involved in shaping what they want for themselves in terms of employment and what they want to offer visitors in terms of heritage resource appreciation is the goal of regenerative tourism, starting from training and collective awareness (Rivas, 2016).
From this, several terms related to regenerative tourism are coined, such as ecofeminism, which involves a concept of nature and the role of sciences in relation to the environment, breaking away from exploitative logics and opening paths to sustainability (Klier & Núñez, 2019).
This trend connects different options that contribute to life maintenance and human well-being, generating tangible benefits for involved host communities and ensuring production meets human needs with equity criteria (Pérez Orozco, 2007).
Another construct involved is agroecology, which contextualizes food production as the foundation of human societies, seeking to reconfigure it with a systemic vision, so that intangible cultural heritage provides the basis to consolidate it as a responsible and conscious way of producing resources (Boluk & Panse, 2022; Hussain & Fusté-Forné, 2021; Pollock et al., 2021).
Given that regeneration enables the creation of a post-fossil and post-consumption regenerative, just, sustainable, resilient, convivial, and democratic economy, it is essential to include the concepts of renewable energy, recycling, reuse, and recovery, to build a system based on the circular economy, where food, housing, clean water, education, and the arts constitute an anchoring system for territory and bioregion in favor of collective human development (Mang & Haggar, 2016).
The design and implementation of various strategies aimed at environmental conservation, grounded in adaptive governance and socio-environmental resilience, allow for the connection of producers and consumers as part of short agro-food circuits, generating commitment around sustainable development values and fostering an environment aware of the importance of joint collaboration for the environment (Somoza & Somoza, 2020).
Research on regenerative tourism has highlighted its benefit in creating more resilient tourism systems, based on regenerative economy, supported by equity, sustainability, and well-being (Fusté-Forné, 2022). It has also enabled the articulation of Western science with Indigenous perspectives, knowledge systems, and practices; such is the case of the New Zealand model focused on caring for people and the environment, where tourist experiences generate unique connections and commitments to communities. …
Seventh Generation Tours promotes principles such as Turangawaewae: knowing who you are and where you belong; Kaitiakitanga: protecting what you love; and Manaakitanga: sharing stories that uplift and improve lives. Their tour offerings include sharing experiences and stories that regenerate not only the listener but also the storyteller, the community, and the place of origin, making all actors active participants in community benefit and preserving important oral traditions across generations (Fusté-Fo…
Similarly, tourist experiences linked to the everyday life of visited places—through food production and gastronomy—are based on co-creation or “prosumption” (production + consumption) activities that enrich the tourist’s preconceptions. Initiatives like “Tourism as usual” aim to create a regenerative transition integrating tourism into an ecosocial system where human responsibility for care is fully embraced (Ramírez-García et al., 2023).
III. Conclusions
Based on the study of regenerative tourism, it can be seen as a form of tourism anchored in territories, avoiding wealth accumulation among large investors, and instead fostering local tourism innovation systems that implement ecosocial processes and promote person-environment relationships rooted in ecofeminism and agroecology.
These activities reconnect people with their heritage and foster environmental stewardship by the local society, encouraging a responsible and cooperative relationship between tourists and hosts. This results not only in tangible benefits for host communities but also in raising awareness among all actors involved in the ecosystem.
