Regenerative Tourism: Needs Protection
Harold Goodwin warns that “regenerative tourism” is rapidly becoming the next vague sustainability label, used in marketing without standards and ripe for greenwashing. He argues that true regenerative tourism is simply the pinnacle of Responsible Tourism: delivering demonstrable, positive economic, social and environmental impact for residents first, not just better experiences for visitors.
Over the last five years I have been increasingly concerned about the rapidly increasing use of regenerative travel by businesses and destinations seeking to differentiate themselves from their competitors in a crowded marketplace.
Regenerative Tourism is now widely used:
The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Sustainability Edition
The HYB 2026 The Regenerative Question: What Hospitality Must Become tackles regenerative hospitality's fundamental tensions. Moving beyond sustainability buzzwords, contributors will explore three perspectives: purists advocating holistic living-systems approaches; realists demanding measurable frameworks for accountability and scalability; and strategists seeking pragmatic balance between transformation and implementation. This edition serves as a critical forum to interrogate the divides, identify synergies, and define actionable pathways forward. By convening industry experts, researchers, and entrepreneurs, we transform contested concepts into constructive dialogue and, ultimately, clarifying what regenerative hospitality authentically is and isn't.