The Karnataka Tourism Policy 24/29 is a policy from the past, an outdated model where the environment is greenwashed and the future of tourism is absent.
At this outdated model, nature is broken down into separable resources (e.g., water, air, minerals, forests, beaches, communities, workers, etc.), and the key goal is to extract maximum value from them to fuel economic production and consumption, assuming that these resources are there to arrogate.
And the Governments perform the role of facilitators to open these resources for exploitation, not for protection. To replenish or regenerate them is not pertinent to this system, propelled by a complex piling of the tourism industry.
The question rises, naturally – can one day tourism invest back more than it takes, replacing its central goal to extract economic wealth distributed elsewhere, by nourishing local places, their environments and communities, recognizing and promoting the social, cultural, environmental capital that contributes to tourism?
The growing split between humans and nature has empowered the current paradigm in which humans dominate nature whose role is to provide free resources for economic growth. But the extension and depth of environmental crises, currently unfolding across the planet, suggest that nature is pushing back its continuous ecological anthropogenic degradation.
Auspiciously, a major shift in the social-ecological consciousness is raising.
Propelled by the global biodiversity decline, ecosystem destruction, alarm over food and water safety, along the rising accretion of wealth inequality, tiggering deep disruption and increased vulnerability owing to the current economic/ecological connections failure, a new paradigm is emerging. Though paradigmatic change is always challenging, more mindful and caring relations between humans and nature are emerging as a core pillar in the new underway paradigm shift, captured by the term “regeneration”.
Regenerative tourism – grounded in education, research and practice – goes beyond sustainability by actively revitalising local cultures, restoring ecosystems, and ensuring that travel benefits people and environment. This regenerative approach is strengthened by an understanding of living systems to which humans and nature are not separate categories/systems, but they are rather connected and intertwined.
The paradigm shift to regeneration, grounded on the extension of scientific opinion to mindful aptitudes, may transform tourism scope, as it’s already gradually occurring in some parts of the world, ensuring that travel and tourism are invested in people and nature, in the renewal and flourishing of socio-ecological systems.
The difficult surge of regenerative mindset in tourism, only now starting to draw the attention of research community and governments, is sparking awareness on the role and impact of indigenous knowledge for preservation and restoration of ecological systems.
Much further to the green washing of “sustainable tourism”, regenerative tourism seeks to preserve environment, local traditions & heritage, going even deeper to drive endeavours to protect nature and communities.
Tough the Government is in duty to formulate policies to safeguard the environment and people, there is a vacuum of meaningful solutions for it. In order to mitigate the detrimental consequences of oblivious tourism, all stakeholders, headed by Government, need to formulate mindful approach to nature and local communities. Regenerative tourism requires a deeply engaged bottom-up approach, community-centred and environment-focused, beyond the production, marketing and consumption of its products and experiences.
Some informational links
https://gcpit.org/regenerative-tourism-a-new-paradigm-for-responsible-travel/
Travel agents, who advance the direct interaction of travellers with the environment and locals, should make a strong pledge to mitigate the impact of tourism, counselling the travellers, by them directed to discover and enjoy the scenes safeguarded by the local communities, to value and support them.
Travel agents might curate experiential itineraries that involve active engagement of travellers with the local communities, not just being mere sources of entertainment but also promoting and preserving the lost traditions of the planned destinations.