What Is Regenerative Tourism?
At Miafrica, one of our core areas is to facilitate the transition towards regenerative development in the tourism and travel sector
What is Regenerative Tourism?
“Regeneration, at its most basic level, is about creating the fertile conditions necessary for life to thrive” – Anna Pollock, 2019.
Regenerative development arose out of frustration over the fact that the movement toward a more sustainable future has failed to produce the desired results.
Sustainability aims to “sustain,” that is, to maintain current conditions or to prevent them from deteriorating further for future generations. However, human activity is putting such strain on the earth’s natural functions that ecosystems are no longer capable of supporting future generations.
While the concept of sustainability has evolved over time, this paradigm continues to place humans outside of or even in opposition to nature, employing a reductionist approach that attempts to solve problems within the framework in which they were created.
While sustainability has focused on minimizing damage and increasing resource efficiency, while this has slowed degradation, it is not reversing course.
It is critical to approach this issue differently, one that results in a shift in values.
Regenerative tourism is about restoring a destination. “Regenerative tourism says, ‘Let’s make it better for future generations.’”
Regenerative Tourism:
What it is and What it is Not
What It Is
- Regenerative tourism comes from regenerative development and design. It is a new paradigm.
- It encourages the generation of questions above answers, which will help us in the learning spiral.
- Regenerative tourism values processes and relationships more than individual things.
- It originates from the community and it is designed 100% in co-creation.
- Regenerative tourism fosters collective wisdom and collaboration.
- It puts nature at the centre and is designed for man to co-evolve with it.
- Its goal is to allow the community and their environment to flourish.
- It designs transcendental experiences that create agents of change.
What It Is Not
- Regenerative tourism is not a new word for sustainable tourism.
- It is not just another typology of tourism.
- Regenerative tourism is not a buzzword.
- It is not just a profound experience for the visitor.
- It is not just about adding ecosystem restoration to the tourism experience or reducing the carbon footprint.
- Regenerative tourism is not about sustaining our planet the way it is today.
- It is not a concrete goal we have to reach, and it does not contain a whole series of quick fixes.
- Regenerative tourism is not designed by experts that work independently and in competition.
- It is not a top-down guideline, with a series of pre-designed practices.
Our Regenerative/Sustainable Travel Programs By
RegenLife Good Travel Scan For Businesses
The RegenLife Good Travel Scan encourages medium and small family-run enterprises (SMEs) that have no previous knowledge or experience in sustainability management to take a first step in the right direction.
RegenLife Good Travel Seal For Businesses
The RegenLife Good Travel Seal offers two certification programs according to the stage of sustainability a company is at, Good Travel Seal and Good Travel Seal +, both assessed with 12 themes in the areas of environmental management, social responsibility and health and safety, as well as a variety of additional industry-specific criteria.
Shop to Support
Shop for our regenerative merchandise to help spread the word.
