‘Real-life tourism’: The essence of regenerative tourism

Bron­wyn Hutchis­on would like to see more examples of regen­er­at­ive tour­ism in prac­tice. In her second “Good Tour­ism” Insight, Ms Hutchis­on sheds light on a fam­ily-run lodge and tour oper­a­tion in New Zea­l­and whose regen­er­at­ive prac­tices, it is claimed, are rooted in Māori beliefs and cus­toms.

Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism is evolving as the new catch-cry for post-COV­ID-19 tour­ism but we need to see more examples of it in practice. 

Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism has been described as leav­ing a place bet­ter than how you found it, but it goes fur­ther than that. It recog­nises the con­nec­tion between all liv­ing sys­tems and the import­ance of the host community. 

Also see the Suz­anne Beck­en and Dav­id Gill­banks’ “GT” Insight
“Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism vs sus­tain­able tour­ism: What’s the difference?

Regen­er­at­ive tour­ism aims for flour­ish­ing liv­ing sys­tems; liv­ing sys­tems that feel good and func­tion effect­ively. While eco­lo­gic­al sys­tems are self-reg­u­lat­ing, socio-eco­lo­gic­al sys­tems involve humans who make con­scious decisions. There­fore we have a role in sup­port­ing sys­tem flourishing.

I define regen­er­at­ive tour­ism as:

Con­tex­tu­ally groun­ded in its mani­fest­a­tion, regen­er­at­ive tour­ism is a sys­tems approach that reflects an Indi­gen­ous world­view of the inter­con­nec­ted­ness of all liv­ing things and uses diverse and regen­er­at­ive eco­nom­ies to sup­port whole sys­tem health and flourishing.

Being ‘con­tex­tu­ally groun­ded’ simply means that regen­er­at­ive tour­ism looks dif­fer­ent from place to place depend­ing on the loc­al community. 

Also see Lor­etta Bel­lato’s “GT” Insight
“Is ‘regen­er­at­ive tour­ism’ just a rebrand­ing of ‘sus­tain­able tourism’?”

‘Real-life tourism’ in Aotearoa

One tour­ism oper­a­tion that illus­trates the prin­ciples of regen­er­at­ive tour­ism, or, as they would describe it, ‘real-life tour­ism’, is Kohutapu Lodge and Tri­bal Tours in Murupara, a town in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zeal­and’s North Island. 

Owned and oper­ated by the Toe­toe whānau (fam­ily), Kohutapu Lodge offers a Māori cul­tur­al tour­ism exper­i­ence with the oppor­tun­ity to recon­nect with nature and sup­port the loc­al community.

The Toe­toes set up Kohutapu Lodge with the vis­ion to ‘change a town through tour­ism’. Their oper­a­tion is con­trib­ut­ing to a liv­ing sys­tem that is indeed flour­ish­ing; feel­ing good and func­tion­ing well. 

Kohutapu Lodge is loc­ated in Ngāti Man­awa lands, and the Toe­toes apply Ngāti Man­awa tik­anga (cus­tom) to their tour­ism operation. 

For example, in accord­ance with Ngāti Man­awa tik­anga the first eel caught is always returned to the water and only one is taken for sharing. 

Kohutapu Lodge is con­tex­tu­ally groun­ded in the Murupara rohe (tri­bal area). For the Toe­toes, this means that they appre­ci­ate the import­ance of shar­ing the rewards of tour­ism with the com­munity in whose land it is based, and the value of shar­ing Ngāti Man­awa his­tory, stor­ies, and cul­ture with tourists.

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

I had the oppor­tun­ity to inter­view Nad­ine Toe­toe about the val­ues behind Kohutapu Lodge and its regen­er­at­ive tour­ism prac­tices. She iden­ti­fied Indi­gen­ous cul­tur­al belief struc­tures as their primary source. 

“It is our tik­anga and cul­ture as Māori that is the fun­da­ment­al basis of regen­er­at­ive tour­ism,” she said. 

“Everything has a mauri (life force) and people, nature, and com­munity are one.

“If the land and the water­ways are not well, the people will not be well. But if our people are not well, how can we fix the land and the waterways? 

“Everything is a flow on and when one is out of kil­ter, then it’s going to impact on the oth­er areas.”

Regeneration for the next generation

An extract­ive eco­nomy depletes resources, but a regen­er­at­ive eco­nomy puts resources back into the sys­tem and builds capacity. 

Kohutapu Lodge pri­or­it­ises com­munity sup­port over tour­ist throughput. 

For example, the Toe­toes sup­port loc­al schools by provid­ing food and money and facil­it­at­ing cul­tur­al exchange between the tam­ar­iki (chil­dren) and tour­ists. This rein­forces social and cul­tur­al val­ues and builds sys­tem capacity. 

The tam­ar­iki learn more about who they are and where they come from, and to be proud of their cul­ture. Their eyes are opened to hope and oppor­tun­it­ies for the future. 

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

Tour­ists receive an exper­i­ence whose value tran­scends the eco­nom­ic exchange and which offers an insight into a dif­fer­ent way of thinking. 

As tour oper­at­ors, the Toe­toes receive, in addi­tion to a live­li­hood, the intan­gible bene­fits of valu­ing highly their cul­ture, shar­ing it, and sup­port­ing their community. 

Rather than chase the tour­ist dol­lar at any cost, the Toe­toes are devel­op­ing a tour­ism product that is fit for their people and their place. 

This is the essence of regen­er­at­ive tourism.

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): Shar­ing cul­tur­al prac­tices as part of a regen­er­at­ive, ‘real-life’, tour­ism approach at Kohutapu Lodge, NZ. 

About the author

Bron­wyn Hutchis­on is an inde­pend­ent research­er with an interest in Indi­gen­ous tour­ism and the role of tour­ism in gender empower­ment. Ms Hutchis­on holds a Mas­ter­’s degree from Mas­sey Uni­ver­sity, New Zealand.