Editorial: The importance of a regenerative approach

Citation

Yeoman, I.S. (2024), "Editorial: The importance of a regenerative approach", Journal of Tourism Futures, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 2-5. https://doi.org/10.1108/JTF-03-2024-297

The challenges and mindsets of regenerative change

Inversini et al. (2024) paper on regenerative hospitality raises some important issues about the development of regenerative as a concept in the hotel industry, which has grown at an exponential pace in the academic tourism literature (Ateljevic and Sheldon, 2022; Cave et al., 2022; Major and Clarke, 2021). Given the wide ownership models in the hotel sector, from branded factory-style hotels like Ibis to boutique owner-operated hotels, the sector faces many challenges on the journey to transformation. Right at the heart of this transformation is the role that hotels play in the local community for the betterment of the community. Inversini et al. (2024) call for a mind-shifting change beyond a view of sustainability in a capitalist world. This entails regenerative entrepreneurs needing to work for purpose rather than profit and taking a regenerative approach to place. The importance of this paper raises the issue of our understanding of hospitality, which has been lost in many hotel operations as we have moved to the service factory concept or McDonald's approach to hotel operations (Holweg et al., 2018), driven by price and commodification.

Is regenerative tourism a feminist theory given that the advocates and champions have fundamentally come from female writers (Dredge, 2022; Higgins-Desbiolles and Bigby, 2022; Pollock, 2019; Scheyvens et al., 2021; Sheldon, 2021)? Those writings advocate a social perspective for the future of tourism given the viewpoint of the failure of the mass capitalist approach to tourism (Butcher, 2020; Yeoman and McMahon-Beattie, 2020) and the forthcoming climate crisis (Becken et al., 2021; Coles, 2021; Higgins-Desbiolles, 2022). Ursić et al. (2024) extend the writing of those advocating a local and small destination approach to the future. Tourism is central to Croatia’s economy, with it being the largest contributor to GDP and employment, but the country is right in the heart of the Mediterranean, facing IPPC scenarios of at least 2c change in the next 10–20 years and 3c to 6c in the next 50 years (Yeoman, 2022). Ursić et al. (2024) propose a mergence of good countryside and rural capital frameworks as a model for reimagining Croatia’s island’s development from a female perspective. The findings conclude that there is a substantial amount of socio-cultural rural capital that is leveraged to strengthen relatedness and rights as development objectives. However, low levels of economic, built and land-based rural capital pose challenges to achieving repair and re-enchantment, which are crucial for settlements that rely on tourism.

Environmental behaviors

Raza et al. (2024) research analyzes the influence of three environmental triggers, i.e. awareness, concern and knowledge, on environmental attachment and green motivation that affect tourists' pro-environmental behavior in Pakistan’s tourism industry. Findings demonstrate that all three environmental triggers have a positive and significant relationship with environmental attachment and green motivation. Accordingly, environmental attachment and green motivation promote tourists' pro-environmental behavior. However, moral obligations do not moderate the association between green motivation and tourists' pro-environmental behavior.

Visitor management

Borobudur is an iconic temple in Indonesia and one of the biggest and most impressive Buddhist temples in the world, with UNESCO World Heritage status. Because of its status, the increasing number of visitors has had major economic benefits for the community, but it has also been creating overtourism-related problems. Heslinga et al. (2024) advocate local visitor management strategies to address overtourism including setting limits on the number of visitors, increasing the visitor area, providing guided tours only, working with price mechanisms, mitigating the physical impacts of visits and involving the local community in the value chain.

Food, consumption and communities

Meat overconsumption by tourists is one of the key issues affecting the sustainability of tourist destinations. Lochman and Vágner's (2024) paper sets out to assess the impact that a promotion of meatless gastronomy and its actual increased availability would have on the attractiveness and visitation of a popular European urban destination. Using a scenario-based approach, the authors found that a meatless image represents an opportunity for the future development of an urban European destination. A long-term growth in visitor numbers can be achieved while ensuring environmental, economic and socio-cultural sustainability, provided that relevant stakeholders are involved in the promotional activities. Yamagishi et al. (2024) study aims to draw observations on the current status and potential of the Philippines as a farm tourism destination and identify the underlying factors that inhibit farm tourism development. It intends to gauge the challenges that Filipino farmers face in diversifying farms and operating farm sites and uses these challenges in crafting strategies and policies for relevant stakeholders. The originality of the study work presents a historical narrative of initiatives and measures in the Philippine farm tourism sector.

Technological advancements

The Metaverse is predicted to disrupt consumption patterns in tourism, hospitality and events (THE) by shifting some user experiences to a virtual world. Scholarly investigations are necessitated to aid in an understanding of virtual spaces and the implications of their consumption for THE industries. The paper by Filimonau et al. (2024) addresses the research agenda in order to understand this phenomenon and what is yet to come. A second review study by Filimonau et al. (2024) addresses the key customer-based factors and technologies that influence the value co-creation (VCC) process through artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in the hospitality and tourism industries.

The future generation

Chinese Generation Z consumers have distrust over traditional advertising and marketing. This study focuses on user-generated content (UGC) travel apps to demonstrate the structural relationship among the expertise of amateur information publishers, interactive atmosphere, information quality, expectation confirmation, perceived trust, experiential satisfaction and switching intention. Tseng et al. (2024) research argues that new-generation consumers have their own specific appeals in the tourist market. It explores the UGC travel apps, which are popular among Generation Z consumers, in order to deepen marketing personnel’s understanding of the relationship among the expertise of amateur information publisher, interactive atmosphere, information quality, expectation confirmation, perceived trust, experiential satisfaction and switching intention.