Reporting on the future of places
Destination Intelligence · Analysis
Since January 2026 visitors to Hawaiʻi have paid a higher lodging tax intended for conservation, climate resilience and tourism management. The first spending round shows both the promise and the weakness of a fee that is not ring-fenced.
About this publication
A monthly publication on regenerative travel and tourism: how destinations restore ecosystems, keep culture alive, share value with residents and plan for the long term.
We separate ambition from evidence. Every initiative we cover is labelled on a five-step scale, from aspiration to independently verified, and sourced.
Destination profiles, analysis for decision-makers, case studies and a working glossary. Our mission and standards.
Guide
Regenerative travel promises to leave places better able to thrive, not just less damaged. Where the idea came from, what it asks of destinations, what it is not, and the questions that separate serious efforts from marketing.
Guide
A guide to the fifteen destinations we profile, grouped by how they are trying to make tourism give back: visitor fees and limits, community ownership, nature and water systems, and living heritage. For each, what is being done and how well it is documented.
Guide
What separates a regenerative hotel from a merely sustainable one, and ten examples from Nepal, Kenya, Zanzibar, Trinidad, Switzerland, India and Canada: what each does, and how well its claims are documented.
Explainer
Sustainable tourism asks how to do less harm; regenerative tourism asks whether a place ends up healthier, and who decides. The difference is real, but so are the critiques: vagueness, greenwashing and a shortage of evidence.
Explainer
Regenerative luxury asks high-end hotels to leave places better off and to prove it under independent audit. Where the term comes from, how it is defined, what it changes for a hotel and its destination, the strongest objections, and how to test a claim.
Guide
"Regenerative" is an unregulated word on hotel websites. Six questions, a short guide to certifications and a list of red flags help separate hotels that can show what they do from those that only say it.
Analysis
From Bhutan's nightly levy to Palau's departure fee and Venice's day ticket, destinations are turning visitor money into conservation and community funds. The design, more than the price, decides whether it works.
Guide
Cenotes, Bacalar's lagoon and the Mesoamerican Reef share one groundwater system. A guide to where regeneration efforts in Mexico stand, what is contested and how visitors can travel well.
Destination Intelligence · Feature
Nature & Biodiversity · Case study
People & Community · Case study
Nature & Biodiversity · Case study
Analysis
Bhutan tripled its nightly Sustainable Development Fee in 2022 and effectively halved it a year later. Revenue is rising and international visitors are returning, but the money is pooled, and the discount expires in August 2027.
Aspiration
A stated intention, vision or strategy.
Announced
A named initiative, publicly launched; no reported results yet.
In progress
Implementation under way; activity reported by its owner.
Documented
Outputs or outcomes reported with data, still first-party.
Verified
Outcomes reported by an independent party.
Case study
Above the Melamchi valley, a small Nepali resort is organised around an organic farm worked mainly by village women. The idea is strong; the numbers that would prove it are still being measured.
Related profiles: Nepal Himalaya
People & Community · Case study
In a city that pays for its monuments with visitor fees, a family-owned 18-room hotel shares a courtyard with its neighbours and sends guests into artisans’ workshops. The intent is clear; what reaches the community is not yet published.
People & Community · Feature
Saudi Arabia has placed an entire county under a royal commission and a masterplan built around its first World Heritage site. The plans are public and ambitious; the independently verified results are fewer.
Wellbeing & Longevity · Case study
A medically guided retreat in the Western Ghats sells healthspan inside an estate its owners have spent three decades protecting and replanting. The pairing is persuasive; most of the evidence for both halves is still the retreat's own.
Wellbeing & Longevity · Case study
A forest retreat near Dehradun that offers Ayurveda, yoga and Tibetan medicine, and reports strong local and watershed figures. Here is what wellness and longevity mean, what the evidence supports, and what the numbers do and do not show.
Mujtaba Ali Hashmi
Kent Richards
Dr László Puczkó
Maria Murphy
Asa Wright has protected a rainforest valley in Trinidad since 1967. Regenera Luxury is working with the Centre to turn that record into results that can be measured and verified.
Aman, Soneva, One&Only and Cheval Blanc define ultra-luxury for many travellers, and each does work the Regenera Luxury Standard recognises. The Disclosure Review reads what each publishes about its own performance, and nothing else.
We publish only recorded, consented and attributable conversations. The first are being commissioned. Suggest a destination leader.
