Have you heard of Regenerative Travel yet? This is a new idea that is about to rise into the field of travel as things reopen to their full capacity post-COVID. And it is something the world really needs.
The Problem With "The Old Way"
Prior to the worldwide lock downs that come hand in hand with the Novel Coronavirus, travel was at an all time high. More people than ever before were taking to the skies, and the roads, and heading out into new horizons.
So many people were traveling, that it was actually becoming a problem.
Overtourism was in. The number of people visiting places all at the same time was staggering. Paris was receiving about 90 million people every year. The crowds and prices were at an all time high because of it. And Paris was far from alone. Most hot spots around the globe were facing the same problem. Too many people wanting to visit.
Overtourism has caused some places to put a cap on the number of people who could visit at one time. For instance Dobrovnik, Croatia (which leapt into the tourist map because it was the place where the Red Keep in the Game of Thrones series was filmed) began limiting the number of cruise ships that could land in one day in an effort to reduce the number of tourists in the city at any one time.
Another example is the Forbidden City in China. Which recently limited the number of tourists to 80,000 a day. Read that again, eighty thousand people in one day! And this means that before the cap, more people than that were visiting every day before. That is a lot of tourists.
Local Downfall
Aside from the problem of simply having too many people in one place, there was another problem growing. The decline of local populations. The people who call these tourist hot spots home were being out placed and left with very little.
Some places, like Barcelona, have entire city streets with no locals living in them anymore. The locals have all been displaced in favor of hotels and home rentals. Entire local neighborhoods simply moved out in favor of tourism dollars.
Poverty was growing, resources were being sucked up by the tourist industry, and the local people in many places were left clinging to existence with very little. Or simply moving out in favor of less touristy homes.
The Response
Luckily, there were already efforts being made to combat the problem of overtourism prior to COVID.
Green travel (a.k.a responsible travel or eco travel) was on the rise. Hotels and attractions pledging to do as much as they can to reduce the carbon footprint created by their visitors. Recycling, using local products, and installing all of the latest eco friendly equipment like solar panels and LED lighting.
Slow travel was another movement on the rise. Modeled after the Slow Food Movement that started in Italy. The idea is to help people reconnect to food. Remember where their food comes from and help support local farmers. Slow travel is one way to reduce the carbon footprint, and visit places in a deeper, more meaningful way. Instead of jumping from place to place as fast as possible to get the most stamps in a passport in the shortest amount of time. Which, needless to say, comes with a hefty carbon footprint.
Other people were starting to switch to traveling off season. Fewer crowds, lower prices, and less impact.
And yet another response to overtourism was alternate destinations. Visiting places that were similar to the hot spots around the world, but less well known and less visited.
But the problem with all of these approaches was/is that they are more like putting a band-aid on a wound. They helped to slow down the problems of overtourism and carbon footprints, but they didn’t do anything to reverse it.
Regenerative travel seeks to reverse these problems.
What is Regenerative Travel?
Regenerative Travel is travel that gives back, and strives to make a place better than it was found. Regenerative Travel does not have a neutral impact on a place, it has a positive impact.
The first in this new line of travel is a group called Regenerative Resorts. To be a Regenerative Resort, the hotel must first meet a set of high standards and must have an invested interest in both the environment and the community they exist in. As of this writing there are 45 resorts that have earned the title.
An example of this comes from one of the first Regenerative Resorts, Playa Viva in Mexico, which is located in a remote area. There were two choices for getting guest into the resort. Either fly them in, or go through the small village right next door. They chose to go through the village, and help provide jobs, health care, and education in the process. Now all Regenerative Resorts must be actively supporting the local communities around them. This includes serving locally sourced food and offering authentic local excursions to their guests.
Eco resorts have been very environmentally aware all along, but Regenerative Resorts must take it one step further. They must be actively involved in environment restoration and/or wildlife rehabilitation projects. These resorts must be helping the natural world, not only not-damaging it, to qualify.
The idea is to leave the place the resort exists in better than it was when they found it. To regenerate the place.
The Future of Travel
Regenerative Resorts is the first in what will hopefully be a new trend in travel. You can learn more about, or book, a Regenerative Resort here. An Eco Minded Childhood is not an affiliate of this group, and does not receive commission if you book by clicking. We simply believe in this new practice and would like to help spread the word to help the environment.
COVID has shut the travel world down. And taught us all a valuable lesson about what truly matters. Quality over quantity. How many companies have discovered that their employees can indeed work from home successfully? How many families have more quality time together? How many purchases have we learned we really don’y need. And so on.
And all of this happened along side a growing concern for the environment. More and more extremely powerful hurricanes every year, massive wildfires in Australia and the Western USA, and of course global warming itself. Put the these things together with the COVID shut downs and the world has a chance to restart in a better way as things open back up.
This is a chance to restart.
Regenerative Travel is exactly what the world needs right now. But it is a user-driven thing. It won’t work if people don’t support it. If no one books a regenerative hotel, those hotels will go out of business. So, when you book your next vacation after COVID, consider looking for a regenerative hotel. Or, if there isn’t one in the location you want to go, book an eco friendly hotel and suggest to them to look into regenerative practices. And keep regenerative in mind for the future.
If more people seek to practice regenerative travel, more and more hotels and resorts will make the switch. We all live in this world, and there is no planet B. We all need to do our part to protect what we have. And this is an awesome option and opportunity to make travel better than it was before.
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