Regenerative Hospitality: Paving the Way for Global Tourism Resilience

By Diane Binder, Founder & CEO of Regenopolis, Co-founder of 700’000 heures Impact

February 17 has been declared Global Tourism Resilience Day by the United Nations, as a way to highlight the critical need for a tourism industry that is resilient, sustainable and inclusive. Tourism & hospitality is a multifaceted sector, yet operated in rigid silos, encompassing agriculture, food service, gastronomy, hospitality, destination management, community engagement and conservation. All together, the tourism & hospitality sector is the largest global employer, engaging 1.3 billion people worldwide, and as of 2023, accounts for over 9% of global GDP, equating to just over $9.9 trillion. Tourism & hospitality therefore wields significant transformative potential.

When thoughtfully designed, tourism & hospitality can directly advance several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• SDG 8 (Decent Work & Economic Growth): Tourism can stimulate local economies, generating high-quality jobs and fostering entrepreneurship.
• SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption & Production): The industry can promote sustainable consumption patterns, minimize waste, and support local, ethical supply chains.
• SDG 13 (Climate Action) & SDG 15 (Life on Land): Through conservation-focused travel, tourism can aid in ecosystem restoration and biodiversity preservation.
• SDG 1 (No Poverty) & SDG 5 (Gender Equality): Tourism can reduce poverty and empower women, indigenous populations, and youth by integrating them into the economic framework.

The Paradox of Tourism & Hospitality

In numerous developing countries, tourism serves as a vital source of income, foreign exchange, tax revenue, and employment. It drives local development, preserves cultural heritage and contributes to conserve natural ecosystems.

Tourism & Hospitality has the potential to:

• Encourage economic growth and provide decent employment opportunities.
• Facilitate the formalization of the informal sector and foster entrepreneurship.
• Promote rural development, benefiting more specifically smallholder farmers.
• Enhance food security and contribute to better health by supporting local, sustainable, pesticide-free food systems.
• Protect and revitalize local traditions, crafts, and cultural identities.
• Connect individuals with nature.

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However, in practice, the industry often falls short of these ideals:

• It may exploit natural resources rather than replenish them.
• It can create dependency instead of fostering local resilience.
• It frequently prioritizes profit over people, with significant economic leakage—in some destinations, up to 85% of tourism revenue exits the local economy (UNWTO, 2021).
• It can disrupt social structures, leading to over-tourism and cultural degradation.

To build a truly resilient tourism industry, a paradigm shift is therefore essential.

Embracing Regenerative Hospitality

Regenerative hospitality transcends sustainability: it actively seeks to enhance the well-being of communities, ecosystems, and cultures engaged by tourism. Regenerative hospitality acts as a catalyst for independent economic growth, cultural revitalization, and environmental stewardship.

Today, many hotels claim to integrate conservation, community engagement, and cultural preservation while offering guests immersive experiences. This shift marks a positive departure from the extractive model of mass tourism, and these efforts should be recognized and encouraged. However, regenerative hospitality is not about well-intentioned yet patronizing interventions, or just “giving back to local communities.”

Instead, regenerative hospitality aims to foster autonomy and local ownership, ensuring that communities have control over their resources, heritage, and economic opportunities. Achieving this is neither quick nor easy—it requires deep systemic understanding, long-term commitment, and a willingness to navigate complex challenges with a place-based approach. Few in the industry have the patience, the time or the strategic framework to embark on this path, but for those who do, the impact is transformative and enduring.

?Regenerative Hospitality could be described following a set of 5 principles?:

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1)???? Having an Ecosystem Approach

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No single hotel can claim to operate a regenerative hospitality project in isolation. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes an entire community and a network of stakeholders to bring a regenerative initiative to life.

Successful projects require collaboration across sectors, including:

• Local governments, ensuring alignment with regional development plans and policies.
• Private operators, serving as off-takers for local crafts, food, and services, integrating them into supply chains.
• Philanthropic partners, providing catalytic funding to de-risk initiatives and enable long-term impact.
• Local NGOs, facilitating community engagement and ensuring initiatives are co-designed with and for the people they serve.

Regeneration is not a solo endeavor—it thrives on interconnected efforts, shared vision, and systemic change.

Réserva de Ibicipoca is a unique example of how a luxury resort can help revert centuries of environmental decay. Located in what was once Brazil gold-rush country in Minas Gerais, Ibicopoca bords a state park preserving the unique biodiversity of the region. Brazilian businessman Renato Machado bought lands adjacent to the park to conserve it. Réserva do Ibicopca is an ambitious regeneration project that contributes to restore Brazil’s natural heritage. It is an eco-lodge, sculpture park and wildlife reserve all at once.

2)??? Ensuring Community Ownership & Equitable Wealth Distribution

Moving beyond extractive models, regenerative hospitality ensures that a significant part of the revenues generated by the activity remain within communities. It can be done by renting long-term rather than owning assets to capture real estate value on the back of local communities?; by creating cooperative ownership structures rather than employing people directly?; by supporting the development of agriculture value chains that prioritize local enterprises and cooperatives.

·This is the approach carefully crafted by 700'000 heures Impact in the desert village of Tizkmoudine in Morocco?: born out of the willingness of the local community, the hospitality project started in 2022. 14 houses were rented and renovated in the ancient village, selected members of the local community were trained, and over the course of the following 2 years, 7 cooperatives emerged as part of a co-designed program with the community?: in arts & crafts, agriculture, and services. Today, the regeneration program is entering its 3rd year of activity and is building autonomy through capacity building and market linkages.

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3)??? Intimate and Exclusive Hospitality by Design

Unlike mass-market tourism, regenerative hospitality prioritizes small-scale models that are deeply embedded in the identity, culture, and ecology of each destination. Rather than maximizing occupancy, it focuses on creating meaningful, high-value experiences while ensuring that tourism remains a force for local empowerment and environmental stewardship.

To build a hospitality model that genuinely supports local communities—preserving their dignity, strengthening their autonomy, and safeguarding their natural and cultural heritage—micro-hospitality is key. By limiting the number of rooms and capping annual bookings, this approach avoids over-tourism, enhances authenticity, and allows destinations to flourish on their own terms.

Norden Camp in Tibet is located in the Tibertan plateau and offers an immersive experience to travellers in the midst of pastoral grasslands. 20 guesrooms – traditional yak wool tent or log cabins - are open 6 months a year. It was founded with the dream to share Tibertan nomadic culture with other travellers. Anchored in local tradition and community life, the founders also created the first yak khullu atelier in the region. Nohla, the high-end brand, balances modern technology and traditional knowledge to create beautiful pieces while supporting the local community.

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4)??? Adapting to External Challenges

• Recognizing tourism’s vulnerability to external shocks – such as pandemics, climate change, and geopolitical instability – regenerative hospitality ensures communities are not solely reliant on tourism, enabling them to thrive independently.
• Pueblo del Sol?is a 800 hectares private reserve located in Oaxaca province, Mexico. It aims to stand as the bedrock for communities to thrive in prosperity and harmony with nature. The project is dedicated to conservation, cultural conservation and the emergence of a local bio-economy. Through a partenrship with 700'000 heures Impact, Pueblo del Sol is consolidating and developing a holistic hospitality model that supports self-suffiency beyond tourism. The project builds independent income streams through organic coffee and honey production, ceramics and natural cosmetics. Through our joint approach, we seek to consolidate and further develop the bio-ventures, and make sure Pueblo del Sol is well anchored within the local community by amplifying their voice about the future they want.

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5)??? ?Offering Holistic Success Metrics

?In regenerative hospitality, success does not solely equate to increased occupancy or better visibility. Success should be evaluated not by visitor numbers and financial KPIs, but by the spillover effects of the activity onto the local population and its surrounding natural ecosystems. We aim to assess the impact of the activity on climate, biodiversity and well-being of local population.

700'000 heures Impact has developed a simplified yet holistic impact measurement framework?:

• A scorecard measuring?: the sense of ownership of the local community for the regenerative hospitality project, the catalytic effect of the the initial investment, the capacity of the project to favor food and economic security, the revitalization of the local community (decrease in migrations, lesser remittances in local revenue mix, improved sense of dignity and pride).
• KPIs related to agriculture (number of hectares under sustainable land management, optimization of water use, quantity of local food transformed, etc.), to preservation and conservation (number of species monitored, etc.), to the emergence of economic activity (revenues generated, number of jobs created), and to community empowerment (number of training, % of women in the workforce, etc.).

A Call to Transform Tourism & Hospitality

?Achieving true resilience requires reimagining hospitality to promote healing—economically, socially, and ecologically. Every decision within the tourism & hospitality sector should address the following questions:

• Who benefits from tourism revenue?
• Does our presence regenerate or deplete the environment?
• Are we empowering or extracting from local communities?

Global Tourism Resilience Day presents an opportunity to redefine our role in the future of travel. It’s not merely about sustaining tourism but about reimagining hospitality to actively regenerate the destinations and communities it touches.

700’000 Heures Impact has been committed to cultivate a positive legacy for people and the planet.