ATLAS SIG Regenerative Tourism Webinar
Picture used in banner by Laura Leppälä
ATLAS SIG Regenerative Tourism Webinar
The current state of regenerative tourism in Europe
Wednesday November 11th, 2026
10.00 – 11.30 GMT
11.00 – 12.30 CET
12.00 – 13.30 EEST
How is regenerative tourism shaping tourism policy across Europe?
In this webinar, a panel of experts from three projects representing three different European regions will explore emerging policy trends, current challenges, and future opportunities for moving beyond sustainability toward regeneration. The discussion will provide valuable insights into how destinations, policymakers, and tourism stakeholders can foster positive impacts for people, places, and nature while supporting more resilient and regenerative tourism systems.
• The webinar is free to attend for ATLAS members and non-members
• The webinar will take place in ZOOM
• The webinar will be recorded in YouTube
• Registration is mandatory
• You can register to attend the webinar HERE
Webinar Program
11:00
Welcome and Introduction
Sanna-Mari Renfors – Lapland University of Applied Sciences
11:05
Discussion: “The current state of regenerative tourism in Europe at policy level”
Moderated by Petra Paloniemi – Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Participants:
Blanca Cros i Moll, Head of European Projects at the Catalan Tourist Board, Project: Regenera4MED
Fredrik Albihn, Head of Sustainability and Regenerative Tourism, Visit Skåne, Sweden. Project: RegenT and Interreg North Sea 3ST
Aisling Ward, Lead academic researcher, Circular Economy for Regenerative Tourism (CERT) Research Group at Munster Technological University, Project: ReStart
12:00
Results of the ATLAS SIG survey and next steps
Sanna-Mari Renfors – Lapland University of Applied Sciences
Participants in the discussion
Blanca Cros i Moll
Blanca Cros is Director of Sustainability and Tourism Transformation at the Catalan Tourist Board, a position she has held since March 2026. She has coordinated and contributed to several European cooperation projects focused on sustainability, innovation and destination development, including BEFuture, Med Pearls, TOURBIT and Regenera4Med. She is actively involved in European tourism networks through NECSTouR, the Network of European Regions for Competitive and Sustainable Tourism, contributing to exchanges on sustainable and regenerative tourism policies across European destinations. In her current role, she is increasingly focused on how tourism policy, governance and European collaboration can support more sustainable, regenerative and resilient approaches to destination development. She holds degrees in Tourism from the University of Girona and Université Toulouse–Le Mirail.
Fredrik Albihn
Head of Sustainability and Regenerative Tourism, Visit Skåne, Sweden. Fredrik Albihn leads the work on sustainable and regenerative tourism at Visit Skåne, the destination management organisation for southern Sweden. He has spent much of his career connecting tourism with the places and people it depends on — from running an award-winning nature tourism company to working with regional destination development and European cooperation projects. He is particularly interested in how tourism can create meaningful value for local communities, how more of that value can stay in the places where tourism happens, and possibilities and limitations of co-creation for the future of tourism.
Fredrik is involved in European cooperation through project initiatives including Interreg BSR RegenT and Interreg North Sea 3ST, which explore how regenerative tourism processes can be translated into practical approaches and policy recommendations.
Aisling Ward 
Dr. Aisling Ward is a senior lecturer in the Department of Tourism and Hospitality and lead academic researcher in the Circular Economy for Regenerative Tourism (CERT) Research Group at Munster Technological University. Her research interests and expertise are in regenerative tourism and the circular economy, consumer behaviour, and marketing in the field of Tourism. She has extensive experience in EU projects and funding proposal development within CERT and is involved in 5 EU funded projects which are grounded in advancing regenerative and sustainable tourism development including RETURN (Interreg NPA); ReStart (Interreg NWE); DiBest (Interreg AA); SMARTCoast (Interreg AA) and CANSTAR (Interreg AA). Experience in the development and teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate tourism programmes within the University, including the MA in Regenerative Tourism and the PG Diploma in Sustainability for the Service Industry. Research supervision experience at Master’s and PhD level (4 currently).
Moderators
Sanna-Mari Renfors
Sanna Mari Renfors (PhD) leads the Regenerative Business and Leadership Master’s Programme at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Tourism Research at the University of Lapland. For more than twenty years, she has been engaged in the teaching and development of higher education in Finland and within European networks. She has a strong track record in securing and directing related European research and development projects, guiding multidisciplinary teams and international networks. Her research focuses on how education and training can accelerate sustainability transformations, particularly through curricula and skills development, as well as on how living systems thinking can be integrated into business and tourism. She is a passionate advocate for shaping regenerative futures and embedding a regenerative mindset across both academia and business.
Petra Paloniemi
Petra Paloniemi, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer at Lapland University of Applied Sciences. Her work focuses on regenerative and sustainable tourism, as well as the digitalisation of tourism. In addition to teaching, she is involved in applied research, industry collaboration projects, and the integration of research-based knowledge into higher education. She contributes to the Regenerative Business Research Programme (2026–) and the Research Programme of the Multidimensional Tourism Institute (2025–). Her current research interests include regenerative tourism and the ways emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, are shaping the future of tourism.
