Towards a new paradigm for regenerative tourism and just futures

The COV­ID-induced travel & tour­ism depres­sion has caused and exacer­bated suf­fer­ing. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight, aca­dem­ic Tazim Jamal sum­mar­ises the oppor­tun­it­ies that she sees for ‘heal­ing’, ‘justice’, and ‘equity’ as our industry recovers.

[Thanks to Joseph M Cheer for invit­ing Dr Jamal to write a “GT” Insight.]

Tour­ism is a multi-bil­lion-dol­lar industry. It employs more than 100 mil­lion people dir­ectly and gen­er­ates about 10% of glob­al GDP. Inter­na­tion­al arrivals grew by 7% in 2017 to 1.32 bil­lion vis­it­ors, 6% to 1.4 bil­lion in 2018, and 4% in 2019 to reach 1.5 bil­lion, accord­ing to the World Tour­ism Baro­met­er. But the world changed and mobil­it­ies decel­er­ated after March 11, 2020 when the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic was declared by the World Health Organ­iz­a­tion. Inter­na­tion­al travel (overnight vis­it­ors) plunged by 70% in the first eight months of 2020. 

The pan­dem­ic has reminded us of our com­mon human­ity and our soci­et­al vul­ner­ab­il­it­ies, reveal­ing lack of coordin­a­tion and reg­u­la­tion of the glob­al tour­ism industry as well as deep inequal­it­ies, lack of decent wages, and little social sup­port for high-risk groups. His­tor­ic­al injustices against oppressed and minor­ity groups sub­ject to sys­tem­ic racism often stem­ming from colo­ni­al­ism and imper­i­al­ism have ris­en in pub­lic con­scious­ness, fuel­ling world­wide social move­ments inspired by the Black Lives Mat­ter protests last year. 

The pan­dem­ic has also exacer­bated the adversit­ies faced by migrants and refugees seek­ing safety and sus­tain­able live­li­hoods, while extreme glob­al poverty is estim­ated to have ris­en by 150 mil­lion people. 

From a pre-COV­ID world of ‘over­tour­ism’ and the rap­id move­ment of goods, fin­ance, work­ers, and tour­ists across bor­ders, COV­ID-related lock­downs and shel­ter-in-place dir­ect­ives have shaken old habits, while rap­id tech­no­lo­gic­al advances and innov­a­tions have intro­duced new pat­terns of online work and vir­tu­al leis­ure. This screech­ing brake on our eas­ily taken-for-gran­ted free­dom of move­ment has for­tu­nately opened up a space to envi­sion a more just and equit­able world as the tour­ism industry grapples with new nor­mal and the mean­ing of safe travel.

Hope arises as vac­cines arrive, but tour­ism ser­vice pro­viders across the world recog­nise that new val­ues must arise too. Old mod­ern­ist notions of pro­gress that focus primar­ily on num­bers, e.g, meas­ur­ing suc­cess in terms of vis­it­or num­bers and eco­nom­ic growth, are clearly unsus­tain­able. Rather than busi­ness-as-usu­al and mass tour­ism over­whelm­ing places, respons­ible prac­ti­tion­ers are key­ing into a new paradigm of degrowth and regen­er­at­ive tour­ism that focuses on sus­tain­ab­il­ity and resi­li­ence, indi­vidu­al and com­mun­al well-being groun­ded in a new paradigm of justice, eth­ics, and care for human and non-human others. 

Oppor­tun­it­ies for struc­tur­al change arise for des­tin­a­tions as they embark on green, resi­li­ent, and inclus­ive devel­op­ment that con­trib­utes to health and qual­ity of life. These include re-tool­ing (green­ing) trans­port­a­tion, con­struc­tion, and air travel, and provid­ing for just trans­itions through job re-train­ing, edu­ca­tion, and social sup­port as needed. 

Also see Larry Dwyer­’s “GT” Insight
“Tour­ism & hosts’ well-being: Mov­ing bey­ond GDP towards a bet­ter life”

Innov­a­tion, coordin­a­tion, and pro­act­ive plan­ning are evid­ent among vari­ous policy responses for good gov­ernance dur­ing this trans­ition. The European Com­mis­sion, for instance, aims to work with Mem­ber States “to pro­mote sus­tain­able tour­ism in line with the European Green Deal and encour­age a digit­al trans­form­a­tion of tour­ism ser­vices to offer more choice, bet­ter alloc­a­tion of resources and new ways of man­aging travel and tour­ist flows”. 

Des­tin­a­tions depend­ent on inter­na­tion­al trav­el­lers are also re-think­ing their mar­ket­ing plans, e.g., devel­op­ing domest­ic vis­it­or strategies as well as attract­ing region­al trav­el­lers. Digit­al mar­ket­ing and dis­rupt­ive tech­no­lo­gies offer new dir­ec­tions for trans­form­a­tion of the ser­vice sec­tor, includ­ing con­tact­less hos­pit­al­ity ser­vices, and new ways to co-cre­ate the vis­it­or exper­i­ence, aided by ‘smart tour­ism’.

Also see Hay­ley Stain­ton’s “GT” Insight
“How vir­tu­al tour­ism can make travel & tour­ism more sustainable”

Amid dis­rup­ted sup­ply and demand chains lies hope for regen­er­at­ive tour­ism in a (post-)pandemic world. Changes in vis­it­or beha­viours and desires in a post-COV­ID world will also be needed. Trav­el­lers have a respons­ib­il­ity to be well-informed about their des­tin­a­tion and recog­nise that they can place an undue bur­den on vul­ner­able places (and their first respon­ders), as well as on the front-line ser­vice pro­viders and res­id­ents who offer them hospitality. 

In a (post-)pandemic world, des­tin­a­tions will wel­come vis­it­ors that exer­cise respons­ib­il­ity, respect, and care to ensure that the joys, bene­fits, and costs of tour­ism are shared equit­ably among res­id­ents and vis­it­ors, sus­tain­ing fair wages and live­li­hoods, enabling equal dig­nity and equal self-worth, resi­li­ent com­munit­ies, and flour­ish­ing eco­sys­tems. Attract­ing well-informed ‘cos­mo­pol­it­an’ vis­it­ors cor­res­ponds well with demo­crat­ising tour­ism through com­munity-based (com­munity-driv­en), col­lab­or­at­ive tour­ism devel­op­ment and vis­it­or involve­ment in design­ing and co-cre­at­ing mutu­ally bene­fi­cial products, ser­vices, and experiences.

Also see Bron­wyn Hutchis­on’s “GT” Insight
“How New Zealand’s Tiaki Prom­ise advances regen­er­at­ive tourism”

Mov­ing for­ward, regen­er­at­ive tour­ism should also be envi­sioned as res­tor­at­ive tour­ism, as places of tour­ism are also spaces for heal­ing troubled pasts and present con­flicts, and restor­ing eco­lo­gic­al health. Of cru­cial import­ance here is includ­ing diverse world­views and know­ledge sys­tems, such as tra­di­tion­al know­ledge, loc­al know­ledge, sci­entif­ic and tech­nic­al know­ledge, in biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion, food secur­ity (con­sider tra­di­tion­al know­ledge for regen­er­at­ive agri­cul­ture), as well as envir­on­ment­al and social justice (includ­ing self-determ­in­a­tion, autonomy, food sov­er­eignty, cul­tur­al sur­viv­al, and her­it­age con­ser­va­tion, etc.). 

Santafe-Tron­coso and Loring’s 2021 study of Kich­wa and non-Kich­wa Indi­gen­ous com­munit­ies on the “Chakra Route” (Cacao Route) in Ecuador shows how Kich­wa women farm­ers, also known as Chakra Mamas, draw on tra­di­tion­al know­ledge passed down over gen­er­a­tions to prac­tice agro-forestry, cul­tiv­at­ing and man­aging chakra gar­dens using agro-eco­lo­gic­al prac­tices. The gar­dens are not only a secure source of diverse foods but are also res­tor­at­ive and heal­ing. As the authors put it, chakra are a “plat­form for agency, build­ing com­munity, teach­ing tra­di­tion­al know­ledge, express­ing cul­tur­al iden­tity, empower­ing women, stew­ard­ing the envir­on­ment, and main­tain­ing spir­itu­al well­ness”. The study shows that there is a rich spir­itu­al and ances­tral rela­tion­ship between the women, chakra, Kich­wa cul­ture, and envir­on­ment­al stewardship.

Also see Kristin Dun­ne’s “GT” Insight
“Plan­ning tour­ism with pur­pose & love in New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty”

Good tour­ism, as I dis­cuss in Justice and Eth­ics in Tour­ism (2019), builds on prin­ciples of justice and equity. It recog­nises, rep­res­ents, and includes diverse, dis­ad­vant­aged, and mar­gin­al­ised groups, and facil­it­ates human rights and lives of dig­nity and self-worth. It calls for a new posthu­man­ist tour­ism paradigm with a non-anthro­po­centric, non-dual­ist per­spect­ive, in oth­er words, a rela­tion­al eth­ic that brings humans and non-human oth­ers into eth­ic­al and affirm­at­ive rela­tion­ships towards just and sus­tain­able futures. 

So, will it be busi­ness as usu­al? Or will we take this oppor­tun­ity to focus on regen­er­at­ive tour­ism and the poten­tial for tour­ism to facil­it­ate heal­ing, empathy, and care for this fra­gile plan­et and all who inhab­it it?

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): Regen­er­a­tion. Image by con­gerdesign (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

Tazim Jamal is a pro­fess­or of Recre­ation, Park & Tour­ism Sci­ences at Texas A&M Uni­ver­sity, USA. Google Schol­ar pro­file.