What is a Regenerative Travel Destination?
Regenerative destinations seek to provide a meaningful experience to their guests. Their locations are often near natural and historical areas, which they try to protect and invest in local businesses. Moreover, there is an effort to reduce or eliminate their CO2 emissions, use renewable energy sources, grow their food, and teach guests to inspire a mindset change.
The hotels and resorts with a regenerative culture focus on the local community's needs with a preoccupation with their business's impact on the local environment and people. The employees are constantly learning to increase their knowledge over time, which allows them to grow within the company. For this, all stakeholders are an essential part of making it happen. The travelers, companies, workforce, and communities can participate in the system to help flourish and grow.
According to David Leventhal, founder of the luxury eco-resort Playa Viva, for Regenerative Tourism, the "History of Place" is also a vital element. The hotel is a part of the community. It goes beyond the property area and co-evolves with the local inhabitants. A Regenerative stay needs to understand the oral and written history to ensure that they can provide a unique experience for guests and benefit the host population. (David Leventhal).
Currently, the industry has praised footfall, per capita spending, job creation, and GDP as the leading indicators of success. The system has little to no consideration towards their impact on the local population. Regenerative Tourism seeks a new business model. The main goal is to help the people to thrive and grow. As a result, they can help to increase the people, environment, and businesses’ well-being. (Jenny Andersson).
How Does a Regenerative Destination Look?
A Whole Collaborative Community: A living system where people and businesses communicate and work together towards a new economic vision that benefits the whole system. It helps the community and nature to flourish. (Anna Pollock)
Regenerative Economy/ Regenerative Value: Economy of Meaning; Growth in values and quality, not volume and quantity; Sustainable Personal Growth; Value Creation; Economic success linked to regenerative impact; Benefits the whole system - "Benefits all stakeholders not only a few shareholders." (Jenny Andersson)
Bio-Cultural Journey: Destinations, where there is a sense of place and its rhythm, are respected. Travelers seek sites where there are meaningful experiences, with the value exchange between hosts and visitors - Human Encounters. Learning Journeys where travelers can understand the history and culture of the community, and there is a rich exchange of culture. (Jenny Andersson)
"History of Place": Hotel and Resort is part of the community, and it goes beyond property lines. It's essential to understand the history and culture of the community. It needs to work and evolve to create a regenerative value in the property and positively impact the destination. (David Leventhal)
Pathways to Regenerative Tourism
Mindset Shift: A shift between the old, fragmented, extracting, mechanical views into a holistic perspective that considers the whole system. It has a redefined attitude towards growth and success. (Anna Pollock)
Holistic approach to travel: Socioeconomic development, support to local communities, landscape conservation, and protect wildlife.
How can Accomodations incorpiorate regenerative practices?
People started to rethink how they want to travel and the impact it has. They want to continue traveling, but travelers will want to know they are causing a positive effect on these destinations. They will consider their impact on the environment and the community. Providing a regenerative journey allows them to visit, experience, and help the destinations to flourish.
Hotels and resorts need to offer guests the opportunity to cause a positive social and environmental impact on their destination. Also, travelers want a deeper connection with the community, its people, culture, and place.
Adding regeneration into the hotel is not only about attracting more guests. It's about actively wanting to make a positive change. When thinking about regenerative travel, it's not the amount that matters but the quality. Hotels and resorts with a regenerative approach can be appealing to anyone who wants to travel while making the world better and more sustainable.
Properties that actively allow guests to connect with the destination's nature, people, and culture while causing positive changes can have many positive advantages in the short and long term. Hotels that care for their local community by supporting their inhabitants, providing jobs, and helping local businesses can provide guests a better experience. A healthy community is more welcoming to travelers, and happy employees feel proud to work for a company that cares about their overall well-being. These factors ensure that the guests' experience is meaningful and enjoyable, positively impacting the business.
Guests can be interested to know what happens to the money spent on their stay. The hotel can disclose where a percentage or amount of money is designated, employees' salaries, infrastructure, community, local business, marketing, and other fees. Furthermore, some hotels grow some of their food and buy produce from local farmers and businesses. This initiative also has a positive social and environmental impact. It reduces emissions from transportation, supports locals, and ensures fresh and healthy food for guests. Besides, guests can learn about the food they are eating, interact with who produces it, and understand the initiative's impact.
Coastal properties can have activities for guests who want to participate in helping to clean beaches near the hotel's area. These hotels can also educate guests about waste, its impacts on the marine ecosystem, and how the oceanic influence the community.
Hotels and resorts in other areas can also teach guests about the natural surroundings and the local people's culture, which helps travelers understand and respect where they are. Hotels with large properties can help preserve regional fauna and flora within the hotel's area and what is around it. Moreover, hotels can help protect ancient monuments and invest in programs for the local community's education, health, and economic development. (Jessica Vincent, Euronews)
What's the difference between Regenerative Tourism and Sustainable Tourism?
Regenerative Tourism it is essential for a sustainabile future and thriving societies.
It's the process of enhancing and restoring the ecological and social systems. According to Logan Yonavjak & Adrian Rodrigues, it's necessary "to repair it before we can sustain it." Sustainable Tourism is the first step to a greener business model. However, it has a "business-as-usual" approach that centers on the upstream impact of business. It's a part of the process when there is a neutral impact on the environment. Also, it focuses on the preservation of cultural integrity, ecological process, biodiversity, and life support systems. (Anna Pollock; Daniel Christian Wahl). In essence, we need Regenerative practices to achieve a sustainable future.
The Service & Significance Model
At the ESHClub, we believe that the Service & Significance Model is the way to go forward in any Hospitality business to truly create long-term value for all the stakeholders, including nature! We believe in hospitality businesses as a force for good.
