Saving the World by Doing Regenerative Travel

Regenerative travel may help halt the rapid degradation of tourist destinations all over the world–and eventually slow down climate change. 

Earlier this year, an article pointed out the beneficial effects of regenerative travel, a mode of travelling that posits helping the world regenerate itself, adopt less social crowding, and acquire an environmentally conscious mindset.

Prior to the onset of the novel coronavirus outbreak, tourism was one of the largest industries all over the world. In 2018, total tourism revenue was $5 billion per day, according to a World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) report.

Tourism earnings helped various countries boost their economies. However, the same tourism activities ultimately affected—and degraded—the environment. Hence, the said industry caused major impacts on the local communities that were frequently visited by travelers worldwide.

Several areas in different European cities, for instance, were metamorphosing into unlivable locations while the exponential rise in various rentals also exacerbated the problem. Beaches in Thailand, for example, were increasingly filling up with plastic residue coming from various hotels and tourist boats in the country.

The necessity of adopting sustainable travel became a popular outcry as mass tourism became the norm. Before the advent of the term, regenerative travel, advocates began asking travelers to minimize travel impact in the different places they visited. Initiatives including the minimized usage of plastic and the reduction of waste were encouraged.

Regenerative travel, however, takes the advocacy a step further. Whereas sustainable travel merely aims to eradicate the effects of tourism in specific locations, regenerative travel calls for the improvement of the particular locations that visitors go to.

Jonathon Day, an assistant professor at Purdue University, stresses that “[tourism] is sort of a low bar. At the end of the day, it’s not just making a mess of the place. Regenerative tourism says, let’s make it better for future generations.”

Regenerative travel does not merely postulate buying local stuff or decreasing your carbon footprint. Regenerative travel stresses the necessity of executing actual, measurable, and concrete change. Hence, tourists are encouraged to provide meaningful improvements to the places they visit. This can be initiated by joining restoration groups or even supporting a local business school for the area’s indigenous women. In a sense, regenerative tourism means leaving the place a better one than when you first stepped into it.

Various travel companies are now starting to support the regenerative travel campaign. The preference for quality over quantity is stressed. With the help of various groups and organizations like the ConsciousTravel, a service that provides guidance to tour and destination operators regarding positive change, more and more travel agencies are now advertising the need to create more meaningful, environment-based changes to each tourist destination in their lists.

As visitors to these tourist hotspots, it is essential to be a major player in the creation of environmental improvements. International travelers must be aware of the destructive impacts of tourism and help promote regenerative travel. The present pandemic has been a huge eye-opener as we see the ill effects of pollution to the world. Climate change is a major issue that will ultimately affect everyone if we do not begin saving our environment now.