Policy shifts towards regenerative tourism

Designing resilient tourism that responds to this planetary moment involves much more than place branding, marketing and designing front-end tourism experiences and visitor journeys that are marketed as 'making a contribution' or 'doing good'. This post explores (1) how our policy systems - the operating systems responsible for setting goals and organising tourism - need to be reframed and (2) why reframing is a pathway to building social, economic, and ecological resilience and wellbeing in an increasingly disrupted world.

The Policy Blindspot

There's an old saying: "When you only have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." In tourism policy, this wisdom strikes close to home. Since the middle of the last century, when tourism started to industrialise and was identified as a regional development opportunity, we've wielded the same hammer, convinced that every challenge facing tourism can be fixed with the same nail - more growth through marketing.

The industrial tourism toolkit has become bloated with instruments that serve this singular purpose. Our current challenge is that the problems we are trying to solve now are far more complex, uncertain and shifting. The landscape of stakeholders has changed, communities and places are demanding a voice, and most importantly, the notion of trickle-down economics (i.e. 'everyone benefits') has been debunked.

Communities and places are a fundamental component of resilient ecosystems. However, tourism policy, which creates the operating system, tends to separate tourism from its wider place ecologies. Like a farmer who only knows how to use fertiliser to grow a single crop, tourism policy has applied the same basic solutions repeatedly, creating the illusion of productivity whilst slowly depleting the very soil (i.e. places and communities) that enable life to flourish. The backlash against tourism can only be seen as a result of having a very narrow framing of the problems at hand, a toolkit that is no longer fit-for-purpose in a changing world, and a system that has not taken into account the widest possible array of interests.

The Traditional Toolkit

When tourism is framed as an industrial challenge requiring technical solutions, the toolkit is limited to addressing those challenges. Several myths reinforce this perspective:

• Public assets are resources to be exploited for private gain. From protected areas to urban squares, waterfronts, and neighbourhood spaces, the character and usage of such spaces have fundamentally changed as visitor numbers surge. In cities, we see evidence of where formal and informal public spaces have been increasingly privatised and commodified for tourism consumption, protected areas have been commercialised, and public access has been restricted.

  
  

• Dominance of large business industry interests in policy-making - where the vast majority of tourism businesses are small enterprises, and nearly half are operating as sole traders with no employees, policy consistently serves the interests of the largest operators who sit on boards and are invited into decision-making conversations. This approach is often driven by a belief that it is not feasible to engage the wider community or small business interests. Such an assumption is pushing the can (i.e. growing concerns over traditional approaches to tourism) down the road.

  
  

• Myth of universal benefits - the assumption that tourism growth automatically translates to community prosperity. It's an attitude that both industry and government commonly hold. Moreover, evidence or proof would be impossible to collect from top-down well-being and social impact metrics, given that the impacts of tourism are felt in a variety of ways. Data on 'felt experience' is impossible to collect without reducing and abstracting it from its context.

  
  

• Assumption of social license - operating without genuine community consent or involvement has been mainstreamed in the tourism system. Social license cannot be derived from simple metrics of social wellbeing or economic impact studies, but emerges through authentic, ongoing conversations with communities about their lived experience, values, and vision for their place.

  
  

• Workspace silos - tourism pressures amplify housing, infrastructure, and climate vulnerabilities. Tourism operates in a policy silo which tends to act as a simplifying force. As a result, the tourism system has failed to account for its broader impacts such as shifts in cost of living, housing availability and affordability, economic marginalisation of hospitality workers, environmental and cultural effects, all of which determine whether places can thrive or merely survive.

  
  

• Destinations can be marketed by specialists 'from away' - destinations are often 'manufactured' by those who usually do not represent the broader systems of life that characterise place. Connection, lived experience, and local knowledge are often not honoured and not included in decisions about how their home is marketed.

  
  

• Local actors lack maturity and know-how - Community stakeholders, micro and small businesses, are often assumed to lack expertise. This position denies the value of lived experience and local wisdom, the ingenuity and creativity of local communities, and the desire and capacity of communities to determine their own futures.

This familiar approach simplifies complex, interconnected challenges into straightforward technical problems that can be apparently solved by directing public money into infrastructure and marketing, reducing barriers to investment, and clearing obstacles to market growth. The development of a car park, the selling off leases, and commercialising national parks are good examples of these approaches. Impacts are an externality that are assumed to be someone else's problem.

The solutions are always the same off-the-shelf templates, such as destination management and marketing plans, investment attraction schemes, ecolabelling initiatives, and airline incentive schemes to boost passenger numbers. These tools promise to solve immediate problems but fail to recognise that there are no 'silver bullet' solutions. They fail to acknowledge that the world has changed, we need a suit of solutions that address different kinds of simple to complex challenges, all working together.

The unfolding meta-crisis necessitates that we recognise the dynamic and complex challenges we face. Tourism is not separate from, but deeply interconnected with, unfolding planetary challenges. Simple tools, such as destination marketing plans or a branding strategies are hyper-focused on one challenge - how to grow tourism - and at the same time do not address the myriad of other challenges that shape the wellbeing of local places.

If we are to make any different at all,it's important to recognise all the challenges and issues that local places face and to reframe our challenges as complex, unfolding problems that we cannot fully comprehend. Not only do we need to work in adaptive, experimental, and incremental ways, guided by longer-term aspirations to ensure the health, well-being, and resilience of our places, but we also need to commit to developing new ways of working and new tools.

When the Toolkit Becomes the Problem

The industrial tourism approach has been so deeply ingrained since the 1970s that, for most people working in the sector, it's impossible to view tourism as anything other than an industrial complex. The majority of tourism policy professionals today have always worked in a system that assumes exploiting the unique qualities of places and using public resources for commercial tourism gain is good. But destinations are places where people live too. Tourism affects livelihoods, cost of living, housing and access to those special places that locals care for. These impacts have long been excluded and tourism policy has remained unresponsive to this growing collection of impacts.

Staying within the defined tourism workspace, not stepping outside comfortable networks, and keeping the traditional toolkit close ensures that uncomfortable conversations about the true impacts of tourism can be avoided.

We've created a self-reinforcing system - where the tools we use to measure success (e.g. visitor numbers, economic impact, bed nights) become the very metrics that determine future policy directions. Each crisis is met with the same response: rescue packages, voucher schemes, destination management plans, marketing plans, industry incentives, and so on! More public funds are directed to restore "normal" operations, regardless of whether that normal is actually a responsible approach in a changing world.

Prioritising economic growth and extraction is also deeply embedded in our education, economic systems, business models, and practices that these alternative ways of understanding tourism's potential simply don't register as possibilities. Yet, imagine the possibilities, the creativity, and the innovation if we were to envision and work towards the kind of visitor economy that delivers genuine social and ecological wellbeing, not just promise trickle-down!

Regenerative Tourism Rising

A regenerative approach to tourism reformulates the entire challenge we are facing as an adaptive systems challenge to address our long-term ecological, economic, social and cultural wellbeing and resilience (not a linear technical fix to grow tourism). It reframes simple problems as complex, wicked challenges, where we all must take responsibility and work collaboratively towards mutually beneficial ends. Regeneration also acknowledges that actions are incremental, framed around a challenge bigger than tourism, which is to work towards the resilience and regeneration of our ecological, social and economic systems. Regeneration requires that we are open to experimenting, learning, reflecting, iterating, and being prepared to open our minds, rather than silencing perspectives that differ from our own.

Regeneration is not anti-tourism, as some critics suggest. It is pro-place, pro-wellbeing, and pro-quality of life. Tourism stands at a crossroads: it could become a force for healing and connection, or continue as an agent of extraction and depletion, depending entirely on how we choose to frame its purpose and rise to the challenges. The determining factor is whether we can shift tourism towards delivering net positive outcomes for communities, ecosystems, visitors and businesses. Inaction or resistance to transformation might just result in tourism, or certain parts of it, become yet another cautionary chapter in the history of industries that couldn't evolve when evolution became essential. If in doubt, just recall Nokia's resistance to touchscreens or Kodak's response to digital.

Regeneration as guidance

In all living systems, there is birth, growth, decay, and death. Not every part of the system can grow all the time. Some parts may need to stop growing and find an equilibrium. Ecologists call this stasis—a prolonged period of stability in which an ecosystem, community, or species experiences little to no significant change in its structure, composition, or growth. The critical question becomes: which parts of the system are growing, in stasis, and in decay? But do not misunderstand. At any of these points, there are opportunities if only we ask "What do we hold on to?", "What do we let go of?", and "How do we adapt?"

For those who see the natural processes unfolding across the system in different modalities of growth and decay, we can ask "Who can we become if we work with the flows of energy, information, and resources rather than against them?" This way of thinking requires uncomfortable work. It means questioning our assumptions about the values and assumptions we pursue in our work. It means letting go of self-interest to see through a lens that aligns with the needs of this planetary moment.

Reconnecting with Exiled Wisdom

For clarity's sake, regeneration is not a new toolkit or way of working, but wisdom that Indigenous people across the world have practised for millennia. Colonialism and the Industrial Revolution exiled us from this connection with the land, with community, and with our own deeper spiritual connection to place and belonging. It encouraged us to put our faith in a very narrow version of human development and prosperity where, through a focus on economic growth and industrial education, we could reach a version of success, wealth, and recognition that fulfilled our individual sense of self and entitlement. It was a cultural project of individualisation, separation and competition. Centuries later, we are only beginning to realise that we are out of alignment with the living systems that support our ecological, psychological, and physiological wellbeing. Depending on what camp you stand in, some kind of readjustment, or even reckoning, is increasingly necessary, or on its way.

Beyond Urgency

Acknowledging that some are fearful of the word 'regeneration' and see any talk of a paradigm shift as disruptive and threatening to the status quo, we might call this shift by any name. The terminology matters less than the idea that paradigm change is underway and living systems provide a tried and tested way forward. For some, however, two questions emerge: "What is a regenerative approach?" and "What do I need to do to become regenerative?" These questions are derived from the linear, scientific thinking we are so accustomed to, that they tumble out with urgency. "I do not need to think about it, just tell me what to do!"

Regeneration as Embodied Knowing

But regeneration is best understood as a kind of embodied head-heart-gut knowing rather than defined and broken into steps. It employs a holistic way of knowing, being, and acting in the world, and an alignment between one's inner values and actions. Building our relationship with nature, not as a separate external thing, but as part of us, is a journey into reconnecting with ourselves, with our place, and where we belong. It's a journey back from the exile created by the fading paradigm of separation and industrialisation. This paradigm shift can be described in terms of a series of liminal moments, including a breaking, an opening, an awakening, a returning, and growing into our true potential.

I am personally called to a regenerative approach because, unlike many other competing labels (like responsible tourism, sustainable tourism, etc), it provides us with a proven tested framework - living systems principles. Regeneration asks that we adopt living systems principles in service of life itself. Nature has provided us with an incredible design guide for how to rethink tourism, and our challenge is to open our minds to explore regenerative thinking.

Where to start in Regenerative Tourism

The current toolkit for tourism policy and practice has five critical gaps that demand attention. These missing ingredients are essential for the reframing of tourism in a changing world.

1. Embrace Edge Thinking

While the pandemic has left a deep and lasting footprint on tourism, the situation remains messy and highly political from global to local levels. The space of creative problem-solving is being met with fierce resistance from business-as-usual interests who want governments to continue supporting old ways that are comfortable and profitable for incumbents. But it is also being met with enormous creativity generated from new coalitions, partnerships and free-thinking entrepreneurs that play and innovate on the edge.

If I have learned anything over the last 30 years, it's that innovation doesn't happen within the old structures that have an interest in maintaining the status quo. It doesn't happen where rules and ways of working are firmly established and there is no room to be creative or think in alternative ways. Innovation happens where there is the freedom to think laterally, to explore new pathways, and where ideas are cross-fertilised at the boundaries with other sectors, organisations and cultures. In comes back to that old adage offered by Jeff DeGraff:

"It's easier to change 20 percent of your organisation 80 percent than it is to change 80 percent of your firm 20 percent… Work your innovations from the outside in."

In tourism, courageous leadership, innovative thinking, and the ability to speak truth to power exist at the edges but not in the centre. If you are in the centre, accessing these insights depends on how deeply you listen, how prepared you are to step outside your comfort zone, how open you are to recognise stuck ways of thinking, and how willing you are to explore new frames of thinking about the challenges and issues. The question is whether we're brave enough to listen to ideas that challenge us.

2. Pursue Genuine Engagement with Places and Communities

Innovation happens where need meets creativity, and this often happens at the local level, in creative communities, remote communities, islands and other places where systems thinking comes naturally. Yet too often, we approach communities with fear rather than curiosity, afraid that their agenda might be different from tourism industry interests, rather than embracing what we might become together.

Communities want to be heard and acknowledged. They expect to see tangible change and want trust and confidence in the process. Good community engagement is not a one-way process geared towards specific outcomes: it's genuine walking together for mutual benefit.

The communities pioneering new approaches are creating place-based, ground-up visitor and hosting experiences focused on building local resilience. For these change-makers working in local community wealth building, the daily question is: "How might we heal and restore our place by welcoming visitors and sharing our love and connection to home?"

This requires upgrading how we approach community engagement. Our listening skills need development. Consultants need to move past transactional approaches that treat community input as box-ticking. Authenticity is paramount—communities can sense when engagement is performative rather than genuine. Real engagement means being prepared to be changed by what we hear. It means acknowledging that communities possess wisdom and knowledge that outside "experts" often lack. When we stop fearing different agendas and start embracing collaborative possibility, we unlock the transformative potential that can emerge.

3. Identify Hidden Assumptions and Sit in the Discomfort of New Ideas

The tourism operating system is deeply embedded and the power structures work to maintain the status quo and reinforce existing ways of doing things. Our tourism policy environment is built upon a legacy of assumptions about what is important, what is valued, who should be consulted, and who are the 'experts'.

Questioning traditional ways of thinking is often misinterpreted as being negative, difficult, or even anti-tourism. But how can innovation and change emerge if we are not open to being challenged by new ideas? Policy innovation most often gets stuck when there is a fear of upsetting the status quo, when alternative thinking is considered too risky, and when we are too entrenched in the idea of being experts and unwilling to learn or see other perspectives. Put simply, policy innovation gets lost when there is a fear of loss - a loss of relevance, loss of power, loss of expert status, loss of access to resources.

The way forward is to recognise the fear and discomfort and sit with it. This discomfort is fertile ground for new ways of thinking and where transformation takes root.

4. Commit to Genuine Futures Work

A commitment to futures thinking is essential to move tourism towards resilient and adaptive futures. Genuine futures work needs to move beyond predicting tomorrow's trends or forecasting visitor numbers—it's about cultivating the required collective imagination to envision and create a kind of tourism that is future-fit.

The dominant assumption that tourism will continue to grow indefinitely is not realistic. It is also not realistic to assume that tourism businesses can undertake R&D whilst governments simply create market conditions for growth. In a sector that comprises 80–90 per cent SMEs, support for futures work should be available. Governments can't just step back and hope the market will deliver. They must lean into this space, nurturing a culture and system where creativity and experimentation are encouraged across the entire sector.

Most importantly, the current reliance on rescue and recovery packages is not an appropriate response to tourism futures. The future should not be something that happens to us (and don't worry, there is a rescue package available). Instead, it is incumbent upon all stakeholders to recognise that we actively create tomorrow through our choices, actions and collective intention today.

Conclusion: An Invitation to Think Differently

These small steps are elements through which we can start to create a new operating system for tourism - one that recognises complexity, embraces uncertainty, and works with living systems rather than against them.

The question is not whether tourism needs to change. Climate change, withdrawal of tourism's social license, social inequalities, and ecological breakdown have already answered that question for us. The question is whether we have the courage to step into the discomfort of genuine policy change or whether we'll continue to tinker at the edges whilst the foundations shift beneath our feet.

The regenerative approach asks us to that tourism, at its best, is about connection, transformation, and reciprocity between places and people. It's about creating conditions where both hosts and visitors can connect, where places can regenerate rather than degrade, and where travel becomes a way of learning and understanding what kind of humanity we want for the future. Our task is to have the courage to begin.

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About The Tourism CoLab

The Tourism Colab is an educational platform and community of practice that aims to transform tourism towards a more regenerative future. We work predominantly at the level of place, with communities, businesses, and tourism organisations that are seeking to shift their 'operating system' and are interested in courageous conversations and new ideas . With extensive global expertise in policy research and analysis, regenerative business development, ecological leadership, education and innovative community engagement methodologies, the CoLab works to build stronger, healthier, and more resilient tourism ecosystems. 

Find out more at: https://www.thetourismcolab.com.au/