Regenerative Tourism: What is this new approach about?
For decades, Sustainable Tourism has been at the heart of the EUROPARC Federation’s work. Since the seminal publication “Loving Them to Death” in 1993, EUROPARC has been a pioneer in promoting Sustainable Destinations in and around Protected Areas.
Nearly 30 years later, new challenges have emerged: the climate and biodiversity crises, alongside increasing tourism pressures such as overcrowding and high-impact activities. It has become clear that simply minimising impacts and maintaining ecosystems as they are is no longer enough.
In this webinar, we explored the Regenerative Tourism approach as an emerging new paradigm to make Tourism contribute to tackling these two crises by giving more to nature and people than it takes. Regenerative Tourism aspirations are to go beyond sustainability by actively restoring what has been degraded, generating net-positive outcomes, and leaving places and communities stronger than before. In other words, the idea is that Regenerative Tourism should leave a positive handprint instead of a negative footprint.
In this webinar, we heard two first-hand experiences showing how this concept can be put into practice.
We learnt about examples already underway in Spain (the Pyrenees and the Canary Islands) and gained insight into how the private sector can initiate regenerative tourism in a given area, always with the involvement of the local community.
We also heard how this new approach is being implemented in East England, where the shift toward regenerative tourism is driven by public–private collaboration and the joint engagement of all stakeholders, including academia.
Explore the Webinar presentations:
- Beyond Sustainability: Regenerative Examples from Southern Europe for Thriving Destinations by Xavier Cazorla Clarisó
- Can regenerative tourism help the Brecklands, a distinctive National Character Area, protect its landscape, wildlife, and heritage whilst benefiting local communities? by Deborah Brookes
Webinar Speakers
Xavier Cazorla Clarisó | ELEMENTS Founder & CEO
Xavier is an environmental scientist and consultant in regenerative tourism in the catalan Pyrenees. As founder and CEO of ELEMENTS Mountains of Ideas and leading initiator of the Global Ecotourism Forum (GEF2025), he drives projects like REGENERATe in Tenerife and NATUDOO, promoting regenerative destinations that strengthen communities, ecosystems, and wellbeing.
Deborah Brookes | Tourism Consultant and Development Advisor of EUROPARC Atlantic Isles
Deb is a freelance consultant with a background in tourism who specialises in partnership and collaborative working, managing projects that benefit the rural economy and communities in the UK’s protected landscapes, including its National Parks, National Landscapes and National Trails.
Moderation
Teresa Pastor | Sustainable Tourism Team
Teresa is the former Coordinator of Fedenatur and, after its integration with EUROPARC, is currently part of the Sustainable Tourism Team, among other matters. Teresa is based in Barcelona office, kindly hosted by the Collserola Natural Park, and brings a huge knowledge on nature conservation and marine issues to the EUROPARC directorate. Teresa speaks Catalan, Spanish, French, English and Italian.