Regenerative tourism seeks to improve the regenerative capacity and the social and ecological wellbeing of places and communities (Bellato et al., 2023; Iddawala & Lee, 2025). Tourism is seen as a living system; it is developed from the unique potential of place and embraces the ecological worldview. Thus, regenerative tourism is about enhancing the mutually beneficial, complex and co-evolving relationship between people and their place, humans and natural systems with a bottom-up approach. Indeed, a mindset shift is underway with new ways of being, knowing and doing, emerging as a necessary transformation towards the regenerative paradigm (Ateljevic, 2020).

There is a growing momentum to rethink the impacts of tourism on destinations. In response to this, regenerative tourism research has accelerated over the last few years with tourism scholars, industry and policymakers examining how it can address related challenges beyond a sustainable tourism approach. This is supported by EU policies and projects seeking to make destinations and SMEs more resilient, adopting regenerative approaches in response to pressures including climate change and overtourism.

This Regenerative Tourism Special Interest Group (SIG) provides an opportunity to respond to the need for more research and to act as a positive force to advance the regenerative tourism mindset. It acts as a platform for researchers and scholars interested in regenerative tourism to contribute to the academic debate on the topic, support governments and tourism industry in regenerative transformation. It aims to foster a comprehensive forum for exploring how embracing an ecological worldview, the regenerative mindset and the principles of regenerative development can be applied to tourism. It enables researchers to build relationships, explore and work together to advance theoretical, methodological and practical knowledge on increasing the regenerative capacity, capability and wellbeing of natural and human living systems in a tourism context.

This SIG drives and accelerates regenerative transformation towards creating conditions and space for nature and communities to thrive.