After Sustainability Comes Regenerative Tourism

By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | May 29, 2026

In 2026, sustainability is now a baseline expectation. It mitigates the effects of climate change, particularly given travel’s well-documented environmental footprint. Beyond reputation, it also reduces operating expenses through energy optimization, recycling initiatives and food waste reduction efforts.

There’s lots of reasons to engage with sustainability, yet at the end of the day, it functions more like a standard procedure than a differentiator. It does not, on its own, inspire bookings.

Sure, it can generate cost efficiencies but never true, lasting profitability and brand value.

What can elevate a property’s positioning, however, is moving beyond compliance into a higher calling that drives visibility, prestige, stronger occupancy and rate growth.

That higher calling can be captured by the word “stewardship.” While broad in scope, it conveys the idea of responsibility toward natural landscapes, local people or even cultural traditions. A steward safeguards heritage while also championing a more resilient future.

For clarity, the remainder of this article will focus on “regenerative tourism,” a concept closely tied to stewardship. Regeneration suggests revitalizing something in decline or leaving a destination better than you found it. In practice, especially for countryside resorts, this can mean programs like regenerative agriculture, either on-site or through alliances with neighboring farms.

At Hotel Mogel, a guiding motto we’ve used to guide our recommendations to hotels, “If it were easy, everyone would already be doing it.” Stewardship and regenerative tourism aren’t easy, and that’s precisely why they work. Here are some examples so that you can get a sense of what’s involved and the hospitality leaders around the world that are turning regeneration into returns.

• The BodyHoliday in Saint Lucia offers its landmark I-TAL experience where guests are guided through the terraced gardens, picking their own vegetables and cooking them at an outdoor kitchen. Once at the top and in the outdoor kitchen-slash-dining-room, guests prepare a plant-forward meal together, simultaneously educating them on culinary techniques and giving a strong sense of community for social well-being.
• Babylonstoren is the first example and the quintessential example of immersive agricultural experiences. Hailing from South Africa, they have everything onsite: farming, vineyards, olive oil production, herbal tea growing, a bakery, a water buffalo creamery, together supporting more than 700 locals with careers.
• The sister property for Babylonstoren, The Newt in Somerset in England, has innumerable garden-to-table operations including an onsite cidery, wherein any one sentence description of what’s happening here is a disservice to this gem of a resort.
• To shift for an urban example of regenerative tourism, Populus Denver‘s One Night One Tree initiative translates to: for every night a guest stays, they plant a tree, partnering with the National Forest Foundation to facilitate regionally specific tree planting.
• “Good Times, Do Good” is the motto of Desa Potato Head in Bali, Indonesia, where everything revolves around the idea of circular regeneration with imaginatively upcycling the waste produced into furniture, amenities, art and more.
• At Lake Austin Spa Resort, it’s an all-inclusive dining experience where the onsite herb garden serves as part of the arrival experience through its placement right next to the lobby, inviting guests to walk about and learn a bit about each individual plant.
• Craveiral Farmhouse in Portugal is a small boutique inn where guests can pick vegetables in the garden, a simple yet spectacular experience, with the property aiming for 70% of ingredients coming from the on-premises vegetable garden and orchard and the remaining 30% from producers in the Odemira region.
• Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver has a 2,100-square-foot rooftop garden that’s home for thousands of honeybees, fruits and vegetables, with daily tours offered to guests.
• With a health-through-eating philosophy, Villa Eden in Merano is a progenitor of this trend, now with a decades-long list of returning guests who relish in the hyper-regionality of the cuisine and the wellness resort’s commitment to organic, onsite production.
• “Soil to Soul” is Sterrekopje‘s motto in South Africa, wherein the 12-key resort’s 50-hectare farm includes a biodiverse array of 60 varietals of indigenous and heritage plants, and forms one pillar of the hotel’s wellness branding that also brings together a focus on the creative arts.
• The 50-acre farm of The Weston in Vermont offers a great example of how to make regenerative tourism work at the four-star level.
• Castle Hot Springs in Arizona is a nearly one-century-old hallmark of American ultraluxury, with a more recent focus on using a “closed-loop” system of minimal tillage, crop rotation and organic matter as compost to support their farm-to-fork and farm-to-bar experiences designed to help guests form a direct connection with their food sources.
• As a brand standard for the multi-property The Pig in the United Kingdom, each location combines some form of onsite agriculture as well as a focus on hyper-local culinary design and getting back to pre-industrial preparation methods like pickling and clamping.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this guest column are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Hotel Interactive. The author may have an interest in the products, services, or business entities referenced in this article. Hotel Interactive is not responsible for the opinions or factual assertions made by the author.