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What Regeneration Asks of Hospitality

O’Shannon Burns argues that regeneration in hospitality is not a new label for sustainability or a framework to “roll out,” but an emergent, place-based practice grounded in relationships between people, land, culture, and more-than-human life. Drawing on global regenerative futures research, the article outlines four key orientations and challenges hospitality leaders to move from aspirational impact language toward honest accountability and structural change.

By O'Shannon Burns, Founder, Aurora Collective and Program Director, Cornell University, Aurora Collective

Green sprouts of hope in the regeneration question

Starting from her own skepticism, Dr Natasha Montesalvo explores where regenerative tourism is already moving from rhetoric to reality, highlighting destinations and hotels that build regeneration into governance, design, and operations from day one. Through examples like Red Sea Global, Capella Ubud, Maroma and TTNQ’s Reforest partnership, she shows that measurable positive impact on ecosystems and communities is possible – but only when strong policy, thoughtful design, and long-term performance tracking replace vague “do good” intentions.

By Natasha Montesalvo, Director of Research and Policy and Principal Consultant – Destinations, Strategy and Insights, EarthCheck

Where Will You Place Your First Needle?

Using Camiguin Island in the Philippines as a living laboratory, Mahe Besson explores regenerative tourism through the metaphor of acupuncture: small, precise interventions that unlock a destination’s own capacity to heal. Rather than rebuilding systems from scratch, she argues for carefully chosen “acupuncture points” such as teaching resorts, youth ocean programs, and co-created (un)Summits that let local ecosystems and communities regain their flow.

By Mahé Besson, Project manager, 7Generations

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 without becoming extractive.

By Willy Legrand and David Leventhal

When Hospitality shapes places, not just stays

Regenerative hospitality reframes hotels from standalone assets into locally embedded infrastructures that strengthen ecosystems, communities, and destination resilience. Diane Binder argues that the real shift is from “doing less harm” to actively serving place – with independent and franchised hotels acting as catalysts for land restoration, cultural vitality, and shared prosperity, supported by new governance, measurement, and blended finance models.

By Diane Binder, Founder & CEO, Regenopolis

What Hospitality Might Become

Yves Carnazzola argues that the real shift facing hospitality is not from sustainability to regeneration as competing trends, but from seeing hospitality as an industry managing impacts to seeing it as a participant in living systems. Regeneration is framed as a reorientation of purpose: from efficiency and control to coherence, shared responsibility, and place vitality, supported by new governance, financing, and accountability structures.

By Yves Carnazzola, CEO, AxessImpact

What Is This Place Asking of Us?

Amanda Ho argues that sustainability, while valuable, is no longer enough for a hospitality industry facing climate instability, biodiversity loss, and social inequity. Regeneration is proposed as a deeper, place-based paradigm that asks a fundamental question: “What is this place asking of us?” Instead of treating hotels as isolated assets, it frames them as actors within living systems of community, culture, and ecology, illustrated through examples like Fogo Island Inn, Basata Eco-Lodge, and African Bush Camps. 

By Amanda Ho, Co-Founder & CEO, Regenerative Travel

Reimagining Hospitality Through Regeneration and Place Vitality

Professor Michail Toanoglou argues that hospitality must move beyond “low-impact” sustainability toward regenerative hospitality that actively strengthens the vitality of places: their ecosystems, cultures, communities, and economies. He lays out a new value architecture and six executive priorities for hotel leaders to embed systems thinking and place-based reciprocity into strategy.

By Michail Toanoglou, PMP Professor & Academic Director MSc Hospitality Management, ESSEC Business School, ESSEC IMHI

From Harm Reduction to Healing: Why True Hospitality Must Become Regenerative

Glenn Mandziuk argues that hospitality must evolve from “doing less harm” to actively regenerating the ecosystems and communities it depends on. Building on the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance’s Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality and shared data platforms like Vera-FY, he calls for accountable, place-based leadership and cross-industry collaboration that leaves destinations measurably better than we found them. 

By Glenn Mandziuk, President & CEO, Sustainable Hospitality Alliance

Leapfrogging Regeneration

Dominic Paul Dubois argues that truly regenerative hospitality is a journey, not a label you can jump to because the word is fashionable. Using a luxury alpine resort as an example, it outlines three non-negotiable “inner development” stages, showing how each step must be in place before a property can credibly claim to benefit its community and environment more than it harms them.

By Dominic Paul Dubois, Director of Sustainability, Six Senses Crans-Montana, IHG

Hyatt Strengthens All-Inclusive Portfolio in the Dominican Republic with Plans for New Hyatt Ziva Resort in Punta Cana

The 650-room resort will open in 2029 as part of Hyatt's expansion in Dominican Republic, adding to 150+ all-inclusive properties across the region.

Hyatt

Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

The Forgotten Poison: Detoxing the Guest Room is Hospitality's #1 Regenerative Act

By Martim Gois, CEO and Co-Founder, Valpas

Food and Beverage, a drain on resources or a regenerative lever?

Adam and Bumjoo Maclennan argue that food & beverage is not a low-margin nuisance but the beating heart – and biggest lever – of regenerative hospitality. By shifting sourcing toward regenerative agriculture, empowering chefs as tastemakers, and designing menus that prioritise soil health, biodiversity, and zero waste, hotels can turn every meal into a catalyst for healthier ecosystems, communities, and guests.

By Adam Maclennan and Bumjoo Maclennan

Nothing we do is sustainable. Can everything we do be regenerative?

Architect Francesco Allaix argues that in a world where six of nine planetary boundaries are already exceeded, sustainability alone is no longer enough – and even leading pioneers like Patagonia admit that “nothing we do is sustainable.” Drawing on regenerative principles, Doughnut Economics, and Studio Puisto projects in Lapland and Cyprus, he shows how adaptive reuse, ecosystem restoration, and data-driven design can nudge hospitality away from extractive models toward more regenerative practice, even if perfection remains out of reach.

By Francesco Allaix, Architect, project manager, Studio Puisto, Studio Puisto Architects Ltd

Regenerative foodservice: from soil health to menu design

Carlos Martin-Rios reframes foodservice as a powerful lever for regeneration, shifting the focus from “less harm” to actively improving soil health, water cycles, biodiversity, and community resilience. He shows how procurement, menu design, pricing, and kitchen operations can be redesigned around regenerative agriculture and outcome-based measurement, turning restaurants and hotels into stewards of living food systems rather than endpoints of an extractive chain.

By Carlos Martin-Rios, Associate Professor of Management, EHL

The Designer's Responsibility in Regenerative Travel

Graeme Labe and Micayla Freeman argue that regenerative hospitality demands a fundamental shift in how designers see their role: from minimising impact to actively strengthening the living systems of place. Through examples from South Africa and Mexico, it shows how context-responsive architecture, local materials, and craft-based renewal can tie guest experience to long-term stewardship rather than one-off “sustainable” gestures.

By Graeme Labe and Micayla Freeman

The Circular Prerequisite: Why Regeneration Without Circularity Is Just Greenwashing

Manuel Maqueda argues that “regenerative” hospitality is meaningless – and often pure greenwashing – if it is built on a linear “take–make–waste” model. He outlines a three-step journey from efficiency (doing things right) to circularity (designing out waste and toxicity) to true regeneration (actively restoring ecosystems and communities), warning that you cannot skip the circular step and still claim to heal.

By Manuel Maqueda, CEO, Bionomia Institute

My journey toward regenerative futures

Martin Hohn reflects on a personal journey from traditional hospitality management toward regeneration, arguing that sustainability has been diluted and cannot succeed as long as infinite economic growth clashes with planetary boundaries. Regeneration is framed not as a technological fix but as a social and mindset shift: a place-based, whole-systems approach that reconnects hospitality with life, community, and ecosystem health.

By Martin Hohn, Founder, ATMA.life

Regenerative Hospitality leading the way: From possibility to practice

Nicola Gryczka Kirsch argues that regenerative hospitality is no longer an abstract ideal but a lived reality in places like Ibiti Projeto in Brazil, where tourism is designed as infrastructure for land restoration, community vitality, and long-term stewardship. Using the Lausanne Manifesto for Regenerative Hospitality as a compass, it shows how shifting mindsets, systems thinking and co-creation can turn hotels from extractive businesses into catalysts for thriving territories.

By Nicola Gryczka Kirsch, EHL Entrepreneur in Residence and Founder of The Regen Studio, EHL