Values over value: adding to place rather than extracting from it
David Leventhal challenges tourism’s “growth is always good” mindset, arguing that low-density, values-driven, regenerative hospitality can deliver both better guest experiences and stronger profitability. He explains how Playa Viva optimises resources, rebuilds degraded landscapes, involves local communities, and experiments with inclusive pricing models, while also tackling tough questions on aviation emissions, greenwashing, and how to scale...
David Leventhal is the founder of Playa Viva, a regenerative hospitality project on Mexico’s Pacific coast that has evolved from 5 rooms in 2008 to 20 rooms today, with expansion plans to Cabo San Lucas and the Dominican Republic. He is also founder of RegenerativeTravel.com, a platform fo connecting travelers with independent hotels that are rooted in community to enable people, nature, and culture to thrive. I wanted to probe whether regenerative practice can truly transform tourism’s growth logic—or whether it risks becoming another form of laundering for an extractive industry.
Editor: Playa Viva exists within Mexico's tourism economy, which is, as most other economies, fundamentally organized around growth, extraction, and commodification of place. You've chosen to work within that system rather than outside it. Are you planning to have Playa Viva scaled to influence the broader industry and is there a point of paradox, also in the ‘regenerative system’ where success paradoxically intensify tourism pressure on the very ecosystems and communities you're trying to protect? In other words, at what point does regenerative practice become a sophisticated laundering mechanism for tourism's fundamental logic?
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.