A New Way of Traveling

Rather than focusing merely on reducing harm or offsetting carbon emissions, regenerative tourism emphasizes net positive outcomes. It’s inspired by regenerative agriculture and design, which restore rather than extract from the ecosystems they depend on. In tourism, that means visitors, communities, and businesses work together to revitalize ecosystems, cultures, and economies — so that tourism becomes a force for healing rather than depletion (Global Sustainable Tourism Council, 2024; CBI, 2023).

This concept gained traction after 2019, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic. With global travel halted, many destinations reflected on the costs of pre-pandemic mass tourism and began asking how to “build back better.” As the journal Sustainability noted in 2024, regenerative tourism represents “a shift from harm mitigation to positive restoration,” offering a pathway to resilient, thriving destinations (Hussain et al., 2024).

For travelers, this emerging paradigm is more than a trend — it’s an invitation to reimagine what it means to explore the world responsibly and meaningfully.

At its heart, regenerative tourism is rooted in the view that tourism is part of a living system — not a separate industry operating on top of it (Pollock, 2023; The Tourism Space, 2024). Every journey touches interconnected networks of people, culture, and nature. Therefore, regeneration requires nurturing the health and vitality of those relationships.

As tourism expert Anna Pollock writes, regeneration asks not “How can we sustain what we have?” but “How can we help life thrive?” This means focusing on conditions for flourishing — landscapes that can renew themselves, communities that feel empowered, and visitors who become caretakers rather than consumers.

Academically, regenerative tourism frameworks integrate both supply-side actions (such as eco-restoration, low-impact infrastructure, or cultural preservation) and demand-side engagement (encouraging tourists to actively contribute through volunteering, citizen science, or cultural immersion) (Hussain et al., 2024). This dual perspective aligns tourism with the regenerative principle that human activity can and should enhance the systems it depends on.

Governments are beginning to translate regenerative thinking into policy. In New Zealand (Aotearoa), regenerative tourism is now central to national strategy. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment defines it simply: tourism that gives back more than it takes. The government’s plan emphasizes restoring ecosystems, empowering Māori leadership, and enriching visitor experiences that deepen cultural understanding (MBIE, 2024).

Across the Pacific, Hawaiʻi became the first U.S. state to formally embed regenerative tourism into law. Its 2024 Act 128 reoriented the entire state planning framework around environmental stewardship, cultural integrity, and community well-being (Regenerative Tourism Hawaiʻi, 2024). The Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority now measures success not just by visitor arrivals but by indicators like resident satisfaction, cultural site health, and ʻāina (land) vitality. Programs like Mālama Hawaiʻi invite visitors to participate directly in restoration, transforming the visitor’s role from consumer to co-steward.

Within the travel industry, regenerative tourism is gaining momentum through initiatives like the Future of Tourism Coalition (2020) and refined criteria from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) that emphasize impact enhancement alongside reduction (GSTC, 2024). Groups like Regenerative Travel are pioneering “regenerative hospitality,” reinvesting profits into local communities and ecosystems (Regenerative Travel, 2025). Although a global “regenerative tourism certification” doesn’t yet exist, the movement’s ethos is clear: redefine success by life restored, not just profit earned.

You can’t regenerate what you don’t measure. Traditional tourism metrics — arrivals, occupancy, or GDP — fail to capture whether destinations are genuinely improving. New multi-dimensional indicators now track environmental, social, and cultural outcomes (Hussain et al., 2024).

Destinations assess their ecological footprint (energy, water, waste, carbon) and their ecological handprint (positive restoration). Examples include Valencia’s verified citywide tourism CO₂ accounting, biodiversity gains (species returning, habitat restored), carbon sequestration via reforestation, and water conservation per guest. In the Florida Keys, visitor-led coral outplanting tracks reef cover recovery and survival rates (Smithsonian Magazine, 2023).

Social and cultural regeneration consider resident satisfaction, local participation, cultural vitality, and equity. In New Zealand, success is measured by whether communities feel tourism enriches their lives and supports indigenous renewal (MBIE, 2024).

Destinations are building Regenerative Tourism Indexes or balanced scorecards. Scotland’s SCOTO framework uses four lenses: Community Positive, Nature Positive, Place Positive, Visitor Positive (SCOTO, 2023), with indicators ranging from biodiversity gains to volunteer hours.

In Sabah, Malaysia, the Miso Walai Homestay network channels tourism revenue into riverbank reforestation and wildlife protection; tourists plant trees and monitor orangutans (Hussain & Ismail, 2023). In County Mayo, Ireland, the Mulranny Stone Wall Festival revives heritage masonry and restores wildlife corridors — a small-scale but powerful cultural and ecological regeneration (SCOTO, 2023).

Valencia reimagined its model around community well-being and carbon neutrality, certifying its tourism carbon footprint, reinvesting revenue in cultural spaces and green mobility, and tracking resident sentiment to ensure shared value (Destination Think, 2024).

In the Florida Keys, divers help restore reefs through the Coral Restoration Foundation (Smithsonian Magazine, 2023). Costa Rica demonstrates national-scale regeneration, with forest cover rebounding from ~26% in the 1980s to 50%+ today through policies tied to eco/regenerative tourism (World Economic Forum, 2019).

In regenerative destinations, communities shape tourism and share in its benefits: better jobs, renewed culture, cleaner environments, and stronger cohesion. Research highlights alignment with climate goals and human flourishing (Hussain et al., 2024).

Regenerative travel emphasizes reciprocity — building relationships, not just itineraries. Visitors contribute (planting, learning, restoring), and leave knowing their presence made a measurable difference (Smithsonian Magazine, 2023).

Policy leaders (New Zealand, Hawaiʻi), cities (Valencia), and grassroots communities (Borneo, Ireland) are advancing regeneration. The industry is shifting from extraction to being agents of renewal. Essence: travel that gives more than it takes.

Global Sustainable Tourism Council (2024); CBI (2023); Hussain et al., Sustainability (2024); Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (New Zealand, 2024); Regenerative Tourism Hawaiʻi (2024); Smithsonian Magazine (2023); Destination Think (2024); SCOTO (2023); World Economic Forum (2019); The Tourism Space (2024).

• Global Sustainable Tourism Council — Regenerative Tourism (2024)
• CBI — Regenerative Tourism (2023)
• Hussain et al. (2024), Sustainability — Regenerative Tourism frameworks & metrics
• New Zealand MBIE — Transitioning to a Regenerative Tourism Model (2024)
• Regenerative Tourism Hawai‘i — Policy & Planning (Act 128, 2024)
• Smithsonian Magazine — “Regenerative Tourism Invites Travelers to Get Their Hands Dirty” (2023)
• Destination Think — Valencia carbon accounting & strategy (2024)
• SCOTO — Regenerative Community Tourism case studies (2023)
• World Economic Forum — Costa Rica doubled forest cover (2019)
• The Tourism Space — Principles of Regenerative Tourism (2024)
• Visit Valencia — Tourism carbon footprint verification (background)
• Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism
• Skift Research — Regenerative Tourism: Fact From Fiction
• Regenerative Travel — Resources & white papers