From “business as usual” tourism to regenerative tourism in search of a change of logics in economic and social activities

Abstract

The large figures of economic and social value attributed to tourism have in their distribution a bias towards consolidated destinations and modalities (cities, sun, and beach...). On the other hand, rural areas, with a low incidence in the economic figures that support the supposed prosperity of the sector, are mostly outside the advantages (economic) and disadvantages (saturation, deterioration, contribution to global change) of traditional destinations. Echoing the potential of tourism in rural areas, we analyse the possibilities of regenerative tourism supported by protected areas. Among the emerging options, this proposal will investigate the potentially positive effect of experiential tourism, based on gastronomic heritage and agroecology.

The application of the emerging regenerative proposal to tourism seeks an approach that takes it beyond the reviled sustainability, trying to actively contribute to the eco-social transition, restoring and revitalizing territories through a new approach to tourist use contemplated from an ecocentric perspective.

Our paper analyses the theoretical bases that sustain regenerative tourism and anticipates a methodological proposal of analysis-action for territories, which natural and heritage values contain attractions susceptible to tourist use. The definition of the tourism model, its participatory planning and monitoring are proposed from a redesign that addresses the possible risks derived from conventional tourism and that faces the challenges of global change.