Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mindset shift, systems change and boundary spanning practices needed to transition to a regenerative approach in tourism. The paper seeks to deliver concrete ways to shift thinking and transition to a regenerative paradigm.

This viewpoint paper defines regenerative tourism, explores its principles and the levers for driving transformational change in tourism. It outlines what a conscious approach to regenerative tourism entails and outlines working principles for regenerative tourism. The paper concludes by identifying five key areas for reflection that seek to challenge established thinking and practice.

The reinvention of tourism requires work in three key areas: systems change, mindset shift and practice. Three findings are summarised as: (1) Regenerative tourism requires a shift in social-ecological consciousness and depends on our capacity to evolve our thinking from “me” to “we” and to develop compassion, empathy and collaborative action. (2) Scientific management is inconsistent with the transition to regeneration. Tourism must be managed as a complex adaptive system and overcome the challenges of individualism, reductionism, separation and marketisation associated with scientific thinking. (3) Regenerative tourism requires a deeply engaged bottom-up approach that is place-based, community-centred and environment-focused.

This paper shares the reflections, working principles and recommendations of The Tourism CoLab and is based on 30 years of experience as a consultant, policy analyst, educator, researcher, professor and now as founder of two tourism social enterprises. With the luxury of reflection and the distance from higher education that many do not have, the author shares her approach to shifting mindsets and driving transformative change.

The aims of this paper are to share how one cohort of tourism practitioners viewed the transformative change needed within the tourism industry and to explore the implications for leadership in the future.

The research design is based on a virtual whiteboard brainstorming activity incorporating both the individual and collective thinking of 20 participants in a global cohort class. Using conversational techniques to elicit cognitive knowledge and felt experience, the methodology generates shared understandings about the opportunities and challenges of implementing regenerative tourism.

The conversations reported in the findings of this paper provide important insights into the challenges and opportunities faced by tourism professionals as enablers of regenerative tourism. Findings included, first, that participants within the course demonstrated characteristics of transformational leadership including a strong moral positioning, embodied self-awareness, collaboration and collective action. Second, specific points of inertia that impede regenerative tourism are identified including embedded culture, power and organisational structures. Third, professionals are calling for practical tools, new frames of reference, and examples to help communicate regenerative tourism.

This is a viewpoint, not a research paper. Nonetheless, it provides a rich vein of future research in terms of disruptive pedagogy, potentially gendered interest in regenerative tourism, issues of transforming the next generation and power.

Governance, organisational, destination management strategies, planning and policy frameworks, individual issues as well as contradictions within the tourism system were revealed. Transformative change in an uncertain future requires transformational leadership, characterised by moral character and behaviours that trigger empowered responses.

This paper shares insights from a unique global cohort class of tourism professionals wherein the challenges and opportunities for regenerative tourism are identified. The methodology is unusual in that it incorporates both individual and collective thinking through which shared understandings emerge.

As the Journal of Tourism Futures (JTF) celebrates its 10th Anniversary, Dr Ian Yeoman (Hotel Management School Leeuwarden) interviews Emeritus Professor Pauline Sheldon (University of Hawaiʻi) about transformation and the regenerative future of tourism, a special issue published by the journal in 2022.

A personal interview.

Emeritus Professor Pauline Sheldon highlights the importance of regenerative tourism for the future and the role the JTF plays in this field. In particular, Sheldon highlights the pioneering research and practice of Dr Dianne Dredge, who has championed a pathway on regenerative tourism.

The interview provides insights into the directions of regenerative tourism and research about the future of tourism.

This paper examines the leadership practices of two Brazilian regional tourism organisations (RTOs) using an exploratory case study.

The research adopts an embedded case study approach, permitting the comparison of the leadership phenomenon in the “Instituto Estrada Real” (the IER) and the “Associação Circuito do Ouro” (the ACO). Semi-structured interviews (n=14) were undertaken to gather information from the RTOs' executives and actors/followers influenced directly by RTO leadership in order to obtain their perceptions about leadership practice.

Four leadership themes emerged: capacity to produce results, capacity to mobilise followers, articulation and communication of goals and actions, and articulation of roles and responsibilities. The findings are discussed in regards to the hierarchical and market governance structures of the two RTOs and the implications for leadership practice. The interviewees identified that transactional forms of leadership dominated the hierarchical governance structure of the ACO and that it was able to mobilise effectively other levels of government. However, this leadership does not deliver results at the speed required by the private sector. The IER is a market-led governance structure and its leadership practices effectively mobilised the private sector. However, it was found to operate in isolation from government and other key tourism stakeholders.

This paper draws together the regional tourism management and leadership literature, making both theoretical and applied contributions to regional tourism leadership.

The connotation of sustainable tourism occupies prime importance in the light of prevalent pandemic situations across the globe. One such deliberation is the construct of regenerative travel, a type of “matured tourism” with restoration and rejuvenation of destinations as its pillars. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism rate was dropped by nearly 65% across the world, leaving the countries' economies shattered and communities depending on tourism experiencing massive unemployment. However, regenerative tourism provides a way to secure a future of tourism and allows the communities to coexist with tourist attractions and sustain new models of tourism. This chapter examined the concept of regenerative tourism to build resilience particularly during the post-COVID-19 pandemic. The result shows various strategies for implementation of regenerative tourism, framework approach not recovery of tourism and renewing of tourism. Additionally, implications of regenerative tourism could be foreseen, and a roadmap is provided for the tourism stakeholders.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

During the 1990s, Brazil began increasingly to see the potential of tourism as a way to boost regional development. That might sound rather late in the day but the country had only recently undergone a profound process of re-democratisation after two decades of authoritarian rule which only ended in 1985. Tourism therefore became part of Brazil's attempts to reposition itself as both more economically accessible and more globally competitive.

The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.