Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Tourism operates within a dying paradigm. The industry has spent decades trying to do "less harm” in forms of operational efficiencies, metrics and measurement and other incremental improvements. Yet incrementalism shows its limits and the question now is: What does regeneration actually demand? Not as a sustainability upgrade, but as a complete reorientation of how we understand our relationship to place, community, and the living systems we depend upon. This opening panel brings three experts’ perspectives who will examine what regenerative tourism fundamentally is, what it demands of businesses and destinations willing to embrace it, and whether the tourism industry can afford the mindset shift required—or afford not to. This session offers both philosophical grounding and practical challenge: the question isn't whether regeneration is possible, but whether we are ready to let go of the assumptions that built tourism in the first place.
Moderator:
Prof. Dr. Willy Legrand
Professor
IU International University of Applied Sciences
David Leventhal
Operating Manager, Playa Viva
Founder, Regenerative Travel
Susanne Becken
Professor of Sustainable Tourism
Griffith University, Australia
Anna Pollock
Founder
Conscious.Travel
Tourism operates within a dying paradigm. The industry has spent decades trying to do "less harm” in forms of operational efficiencies, metrics and measurement and other incremental improvements. Yet incrementalism shows its limits and the question now is: What does regeneration actually demand? Not as a sustainability upgrade, but as a complete reorientation of how we understand our relationship to place, community, and the living systems we depend upon. This opening panel brings three experts’ perspectives who will examine what regenerative tourism fundamentally is, what it demands of businesses and destinations willing to embrace it, and whether the tourism industry can afford the mindset shift required—or afford not to. This session offers both philosophical grounding and practical challenge: the question isn't whether regeneration is possible, but whether we are ready to let go of the assumptions that built tourism in the first place.
Moderator:
Prof. Dr. Willy Legrand
Professor
IU International University of Applied Sciences
David Leventhal
Operating Manager, Playa Viva
Founder, Regenerative Travel
Susanne Becken
Professor of Sustainable Tourism
Griffith University, Australia
Anna Pollock
Founder
Conscious.Travel
