In recent years, the niche concept of regenerative tourism has emerged as a transformational approach to tourism seeking to create net positive impacts in communities and places where tourism occurs. Regenerative tourism innovations claim to promote and restore wellbeing and develop the capacities of places, communities and their guests to evolve in harmony with interconnected social-ecological systems. Whilst the approach has increasingly attracted interest by tourism scholars and practitioners, growing calls for practical applications of regenerative tourism are paving the way for developing and testing conceptual and design frameworks. This paper examines the practical application of a regenerative tourism conceptual framework to the Swimmable Birrarung (Yarra River) case study in Melbourne, Australia. Seven regenerative tourism practice principles and five corresponding design dimensions are taken up to guide the development and implementation of an action research project involving Aboriginal communities, businesses, government, and civil society actors. Findings critically appraising the capacity of the framework to guide the regenerative tourism initiative will be presented. This paper contributes to the discursive developments of regenerative tourism applications and informs real-life regenerative tourism transformations. The contributions of tourism towards regenerating the urban river and connected social-ecological ecosystems will be discussed.
Mots clés : regenerative tourism|regenerative development
A102724LB