Our research addresses for the potential for regenerative tourism to combat the environmental and socio-cultural challenges currently facing tourism destinations. Regenerative tourism is a new concept which goes beyond the net zero aims of sustainable tourism toward a net positive system. It actively seeks to restore and regenerate the environment, cultures, and communities in order to improve a destination. Regenerative tourism promotes biodiversity, supports local economies, and fosters cultural exchange. To better understand how regenerative tourism could be applied to communities, we interviewed 57 tourism social entrepreneurs worldwide, asking them about key challenges, strategies, and opportunities in engaging with regenerative tourism. Our interviewees came from such diverse businesses and locations as UnTours in the USA, Intrepid Travel in Australia, Playa Viva in Mexico, Future Found Sanctuary in South Africa, and Mana Ubud in Indonesia.

Major challenges reported by these social entrepreneurs included difficulty finding business partners and a lack of awareness of regenerative tourism amongst community members and tourists. Key strategies to overcome those challenges consisted of engaging in extensive networking to find like-minded business partners, share the benefits with existing businesses in order to help them transition to a more regenerative approach, and designing fun and clever ways to educate tourists (both overtly and covertly, in-person and virtually via various forms of digital communication) about the benefits of adopting a regenerative mindset. The findings also reveal the critical role of systems thinking and feedback loops in fostering regeneration opportunities within destinations. In other words, social entrepreneurs recognize that they cannot be successful in isolation; they need the systemic support of governmental policies and laws, and connectivity with other regenerative entrepreneurs globally, both within and outside of tourism, in order to thrive. Because of the relative newness of the concept, social entrepreneurs interested in a regenerative approach must be extra-sensitive to feedback they receive in order to constantly improve their products as well as build on the positive aspects. If you are interested in learning more, this research has been published in the Annals of Tourism Research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2024.103818

Building on the first study, we explored how different social media regenerative tourism framing strategies (diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational) can influence tourists’ attitudes and intentions to participate in regenerative tourism. An example of Diagnostic framing is vividly and explicitly showing the problems faced by destinations such as overtourism, and environmental degradation. An example of Prognostic framing is solution-oriented, explaining regenerative tourism as a possible answer to the problem faced by the destination. Motivational framing uses a specific call to action in the message by encouraging tourists to participate in regenerative tourism activities such as planting mangroves, volunteering, releasing baby turtles, or paying a regenerative tourism fee, among others. Combining 22 in-depth interviews with DMO leaders and regenerative practitioners with an online experiment involving respondents from the US, UK, and New Zealand, we found that prognostic and motivational framing approaches, which focus on solutions and provide clear calls to action, resonate most strongly with tourists and effectively engage their participation in regenerative tourism. This approach is particularly valuable for DMOs and other organizations aiming to deliver compelling narratives and storytelling to encourage participation in regenerative tourism. Perhaps it should come as no surprise that tourists don’t want to be shamed into acting responsibly while traveling; they would rather be given direction and motivation to do the right thing while still having fun!  

Looking ahead, we are interested in identifying activities and programs that best educate and engage tourists in regenerative tourism at destinations. For example, we aim to explore how technology and innovations, such as gamification elements in digital applications, could enhance engagement. We hope our research will make a meaningful impact on destinations, enterprises, tourists, and residents looking to take advantage of regenerative tourism.

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