Decoding Regenerative Literacy in Tourism

As regenerative tourism is attracting attention in both media and research, this blog explores the concept of regenerative literacy in tourism. In a previous article (Holmberg & Konttinen, 2024), we discussed the concept of sustainability literacy in tourism. While sustainability remains an important topic for educators, students and businesses around the globe, the fast-paced world of tourism requires an additional angle, regenerative tourism literacy, to the discussion.

What is regenerative tourism?

It is well-known that tourism as an activity can lead to numerous negative impacts. In 1987, the Brundtland report introduced the concept of sustainable development, which was quickly embraced by tourism policies, development approaches, and research. Since then, sustainability has become of utmost importance for tourism (Saarinen, 2018). However, according to Saarinen (2021), the sustainable tourism approach is based on a growth-oriented and market-driven paradigm of global tourism, with the assumption that if sustainability issues are acknowledged, the number of tourists can grow. However, sustainable tourism has fallen short of expectations: just sustaining and surviving does not make the world a better place.

As criticism of the sustainable tourism paradigm has intensified, alternative approaches to mass tourism have emerged (see, e.g., Prince & Ioannides, 2017). One of these is regenerative tourism, which represents tourism that is embedded in an alternative economic model beyond growth (Duxbury et al., 2021).  For instance, Bellatto et al. (2023) state that “regenerative tourism departs from the sustainable development paradigm by positioning tourism activities as interventions that develop the capacities of places, communities and their guests to operate in harmony with interconnected social-ecological systems”. Thus, in simpler terms, regenerative tourism means leaving the destination better than it was found and giving back to the local community (Bellato & Pollock, 2023). Therefore, regenerative tourism shares many similarities with other alternative tourism forms, such as community-based tourism and volunteer tourism, both of which aim to enhance the well-being of local communities (Konttinen & Holmberg, forthcoming).

Many tourism companies are currently occupied with measuring their footprint (e.g., carbon footprint), to find out their negative impacts on the planet. Regeneration can be explained with the term handprint (Schillebeeckx,10 June 2022). With regenerative tourism practices and proactive action, it is possible to achieve a positive impact on people and the planet. Ultimately, as Becken & Coghan (2022) state, humans need to ensure that their footprint remains within planetary boundaries. To make this happen, there is a need for regenerative literacy in tourism.

What is regenerative tourism literacy?

Regenerative tourism literacy requires more than sustainability literacy. “Sustainability Literacy” refers to the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that allow individuals to become deeply committed to building a sustainable future and assisting in making informed and effective decisions to this end (United Nations, 2020). In tourism, sustainability literacy comprises knowledge, skills and attitudes to cope with and find solutions for the wicked problems of the world and the tourism industry (Holmberg & Konttinen, 2024). Whereas sustainability literacy in tourism is required by all individuals involved in tourism related activities, Becken & Coghlan (2022) suggest that regenerative literacy could be an approach to increase tourism actors’ ability to turn knowledge into action and thereby connect with nature to help the local ecosystem thrive.

As humans have already overshot many planetary boundaries, there is a need to heal and restore the damage already done. Becken & Coghlan (2022) further suggest that respect for nature needs to be embedded in the education of tourism and hospitality students. It is important to combine knowledge (what) with behaviour and actions (how), and attitudes and emotions (why), i.e., head-hand-heart (Becken & Coghlan, 20 December 2022). Only that way will it be possible to achieve change.

Indeed, just like regenerative tourism, regenerative tourism literacy goes beyond sustainability, where the focus is just on surviving and sustaining. Regenerative tourism, on the other hand, highlights thriving and revitalizing, “leaving the place better off”. Regenerative tourism literacy, too, emphasizes the systems approach, seeing individuals and businesses as part of the ecosystem, as actors that work towards a circular economy, a thriving local culture and community, and essentially for the benefit of the local ecosystem. No actor can do it alone, though: it requires the involvement of the entire community and its ecosystem.

Regenerative tourism is about aligning the values and lifestyles of tourists with nature. As human beings are a part of nature, the responsibility of humans and businesses is to support a healthy evolution of life through regenerating and revitalising ecosystems (Bellato et al., 2022). Thus, regenerative literacy in tourism means that tourists and tourism businesses take action to improve the well-being of the local community and nourish the local ecosystem.  Why this is so important will be discussed next.

Local communities struggle with rising tourism numbers and their impact

Global tourism has experienced remarkable growth over the past few decades. In 2024, tourism numbers were already back to 99 % of pre-pandemic levels, with 1.4 billion international tourists travelling the world (UNWTO, 20 January 2025). Climate change and biodiversity loss are the biggest long-term crises for the planet (WEF, 2025), and tourism is a major contributor. 

Many cities and island destinations have borne the brunt of tourism growth, both before and after the pandemic. They have faced severe tourism impacts, such as overcrowding, rising housing prices due to short-term rentals, a surge in cheap airfares and the increasing influence of social media on destination choices. The concept of overtourism describes this phenomenon (Koens et al., 2018). 

Overtourism happens when destinations exceed their carrying capacities and while the phenomenon has been around for decades already, the term was popularised by the online travel magazine Skift in 2016 (Ali, 23 August 2016). Since then, overtourism has been a major issue in cities like Barcelona, Venice, Paris and Kyoto, as well as island and beach destinations like Maya Beach, Canary Islands and Santorini. Very often it is the local communities that suffer the most from overtourism (KaitlynBra, 15 August 2024) and it leads to anti-tourism sentiment (Cheer & Novelli, 17 October 2023).

The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) defines overtourism as “the impact of tourism on a destination, or parts thereof, that excessively influences perceived quality of life of citizens and/or quality of visitors’ experiences in a negative way” (UNWTO, 2018). With many destinations struggling with excessive tourist numbers, especially during peak seasons, alternative tourism approaches have been developed to change the development path.

In Finland, the most popular form of alternative tourism appears to be regenerative tourism, a tourism concept that has appeared in the development strategies of Finnish companies (e.g., Hawkhill and Haltia Lake Lodge), cities (e.g., City of Helsinki, 2023) and the country alike. Helsinki was even featured as a haven of regeneration by The Guardian (Fiegel, 26 December 2024). 

Visit Finland (29 January 2024) has showcased Haltia Lake Lodge in Nuuksio National Park as a regenerative tourism case and appointed the CEO of Hawkhill, Annu Huotari, as the first sustainability ambassador of Visit Finland. A Visit Finland (4 December 2024) video presents Hawkhill regenerative tourism practices, e.g., engaging guests in removing alien species from nature to increase biodiversity. The ideas of regenerative tourism seem to offer a breath of fresh air to an overcrowded tourism scene.

Sources:

Ali, R. (23 August 2016). Exploring the Coming Perils of Overtourism. URL: https://skift.com/2016/08/23/exploring-the-coming-perils-of-overtourism/ 

Becken, S. & Coghlan, A. (2022). Knowledge alone won’t “fix it”: building regenerative literacy. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 32(2), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2022.2150860

Becken, S. & Coghlan, A. (20 December 2022). Regenerative literacy can help build sustainable tourism. URL: https://news.griffith.edu.au/2022/12/20/regenerative-literacy-can-help-build-sustainable-tourism/ 

Bellato, L., Frantzeskaki, N. & Nygaard, C.A. (2023). Regenerative tourism: a conceptual framework leveraging theory and practice. Tourism Geographies, 25 (1), 1-21. DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2022.2044376

Bellato, L., Frantzeskaki, N., Briceño Fiebig, C., Pollock, A., Dens, E. & Reed, B. (2022).

Transformative roles in tourism:  Adopting living systems’  thinking for regenerative futures. Journal  of  Tourism  Futures, 8(3),  312–329. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-11-2021-0256

Bellato, L. & Pollock, A. (2023). Regenerative tourism: a state-of-the-art review. Tourism Geographies, DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2023.2294366

Cheer, J.M. & Novelli, M. (17 October 2023). What is overtourism and how can we overcome it? URL: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/10/what-is-overtourism-and-how-can-we-overcome-it/ 

City of Helsinki (2023). City of Helsinki’s Climate Action Plan for tourism 2023–26. URL: https://www.hel.fi/static/kanslia/elo/Hki_matkailun_CAP_FINAL_02062023_EN.pdf

Duxbury, N., Bakas, F.E., Vinagre de Castro, T. & Silva, S. (2021). Creative Tourism Development Models towards Sustainable and Regenerative Tourism. Sustainability, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010002 

Fiegel, E. (26 December 2024). On the waterfront in Helsinki – a zen regeneration game. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2024/dec/26/eco-friendly-helsinki-finland 

Holmberg, E. & Konttinen, A. (2024). Striving for Sustainability Literacy in Tourism Students: Insights from Finland and South Africa. UAS Journal 4/2024. URN: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2024112596567

Holmberg, E. & Konttinen, A. (forthcoming). Regenerative tourism in Finland – a buzzword or a panacea?

KaitlynBra (15 August 2024). What Is Overtourism and Why Is It a Problem? Sustainable Travel International. URL: https://sustainabletravel.org/what-is-overtourism/ 

Koens, K., Postma, A. & Papp, B. (2018). Is Overtourism Overused? Understanding the Impact of Tourism in a City Context. Sustainability, 10(12):4384. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10124384 

Prince, S. &  Ioannides, D. (2017). Contextualizing the complexities of managing alternative tourism at the community-level: A case study of a nordic eco-village, Tourism Management, 60, 348-356, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2016.12.015

Saarinen, J. (2018). Beyond growth thinking : the need to revisit sustainable development in tourism. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe202001081480

Saarinen, J. (2021). Is Being Responsible Sustainable in Tourism? Connections and Critical Dif-ferences. Sustainability, 13 (12). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126599 

Schillebeeckx, S. (10 June 2022). Regeneration vs Sustainability: From Footprints to Handprints. URL: https://handprint.tech/regeneration-vs-sustainability-from-footprints-to-handprints/

United Nations (2020). Raising awareness and assessing sustainability literacy on SDG 7. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdinaction/hesi/literacy

UNWTO (2018). Overtourism? Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions. DOI: 10.18111/9789284420070

UNWTO (20 January 2025). International tourism recovers pre-pandemic levels in 2024. URL: https://www.unwto.org/news/international-tourism-recovers-pre-pandemic-levels-in-2024 

Visit Finland (29 January 2024). Visit Finland Business cases - Haltia Lake Lodge – EN. You Tube video. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15YBB-9V-jA 

Visit Finland (4 December 2024). Sustainability Ambassador’s Journey 2024. You Tube video. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E27o9VMXrf4 

WEF (World Economic Forum) (2025). Global Risks Report 2025. URL: https://www.weforum.org/publications/global-risks-report-2025/ 

Texten har granskats och godkänts av Novias redaktionsråd 8.5.2025.