Travel Tip 18
How to practice regenerative travel
How can we leave a positive impact when we travel?
Visiting Parque de la Papa, near Cusco, supports local musicians and helps them maintain their culture.
First, what is regenerative travel?
Regenerative travel leaves a positive impact.
Does the campsite rule sound familiar? As a kid, I was taught to leave a place better than we found it. That meant picking up trash on river beaches and leaving dry firewood for the next visitors at campgrounds. Regenerative travel tries to leave a more lasting impact. Instead of simply hiking through a forest, a tour company might include an hour planting trees along the way. On a birding trip, the guide might show you how to record species you see on an app that adds to data for scientists to use.
While environmental impact is certainly important, regenerative travel is more holistic. It seeks to improve the lives of the people who live in the tourist destination as much as to improve the flora and fauna. When visiting an Indigenous village, you might get to watch a demonstration of how people make traditional art or crafts to help preserve their culture. Often, you’ll be able to buy souvenirs from artists, rather than plastic trinkets made in factories.
How is it different from sustainable travel?
The goal of sustainable travel is to do no harm, that is, to not leave a place worse off than you found it. Sustainable travel doesn’t necessarily try to leave a place better, but to leave a place just as good as it was before you got there.
Unfortunately, tourism, and travel in general, has left so many negative impacts over the past decades (well, actually, centuries) that doing no harm is no longer enough.
Parque de la Papa, Pisac, Cusco Region
The women of the Parque de la Papa teach workshops on how to gather and use medicinal herbs. This helps preserve their culture and supports their conservation of the land where they gather herbs. Plus, it’s a fun day!
How is regenerative travel different from volunteer vacations?
Travelers are often in the role of learning from local people in regenerative tourism. Volunteer projects are often about teaching something to local people.
Regenerative travel has opportunities to leave a positive impact built into common tourist activities. Volunteer vacations are generally the other way around. The focus is on volunteering for a project and tours or activities are add-ons. (I’ll address how to check if a volunteer project is legit in another newsletter, because they can be more problematic than they’re worth).
Have any questions? Leave them in the comments below!
Article
What is regenerative travel and how can you make sure it’s not marketing hype?
Click on the title above for my explainer published by Frommer’s on how you can evaluate a travel company for their positive impacts. Some companies have caught on that regenerative travel is the new buzz word and have added that to their marketing without always adding regenerative practices. On the other hand, some companies practice regenerative travel but haven’t picked up the new terminology yet.
Blogs
I’ve recently stayed at several places that have regenerative travel built into every guest’s experience.
These three are my favorites because of how fun the experience was and how much conservation work they do.
Manu BioLodge, on the edge of the Peruvian Amazon, is a lodge that supports a scientific research station. A portion of what you pay to stay there goes directly to scientists who are doing conservation work on the land around the lodge. Also, the lodge staff show guests how to use the eBird app to help the scientists who are researching the 659 species of birds that have been reported on the lodge’s nature preserve. Book your stay at Manu Biolodge here.
Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel is in Aguas Calientes, the town you go through when you visit Machu Picchu. The property’s orchid garden is one of the largest in the world with 372 species. Resident biologists give tours scheduled throughout the day of the orchids and other flora and fauna on the hotel’s 12 acres. Many of the 294 bird species have been tagged by Inkaterra’s biologists and staying at Inkaterra supports their research. Book your stay at Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo here.
Pristine Camps in Salinas Grandes, Argentina is a fantastical set of domes on a massive salt flat. It is truly a beautiful place and one of the most photogenic locations I’ve ever seen. Staying at Pristine Camps helps preserve the salt flats from uranium mining, which would pollute the drinking water for the area’s Indigenous residents who still herd llamas and gather salt as they have for thousands of years. Click on the blog above to read about the tours included in every stay. Book your stay at Pristine Camps here.
