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Abstract

The increasing urgency of climate change, biodiversity loss, and socio-economic transition has generated growing interest in tourism approaches that move beyond sustainability towards more transformative forms of development. While sustainable tourism has become the dominant paradigm within tourism planning and policy, it has been criticised for its emphasis on impact mitigation and its limited capacity to address systemic challenges. In response, regenerative tourism has emerged as an alternative framework that seeks to restore and enhance ecological, social, cultural, and economic systems through tourism activity.

This paper explores the potential of regenerative tourism as a framework for transformative destination management. Drawing upon regenerative development theory, systems thinking, and destination management literature, the study develops a Four-Pillar Regenerative Destination Framework comprising ecological regeneration, community-centred development, integrated governance, and transformative visitor experiences. The framework is subsequently applied to the illustrative case of County Offaly, Ireland, a region undergoing significant socio-ecological transition following the decline of peat extraction and the emergence of large-scale peatland restoration.

The findings suggest that Offaly possesses many of the characteristics associated with regenerative tourism, including extensive ecological restoration initiatives, emerging opportunities for community-based development, and the potential for transformative nature-based visitor experiences. Furthermore, the study highlights the existence of a strong regional ambition within Ireland's Midlands to become a leading regenerative tourism destination. However, it also identifies a gap between regional regenerative aspirations and local destination management implementation.

The paper contributes to the growing regenerative tourism literature by proposing a practical destination management framework and introducing the concept of destinations as ‘living regenerative laboratories’, where ecological restoration, economic transition, governance adaptation, and tourism development interact within broader processes of territorial transformation. The study concludes that regenerative tourism offers a promising pathway for destinations seeking to align tourism development with environmental restoration, community resilience, and long-term regional regeneration.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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