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Explore Peru with purpose
See Peru through the eyes of the women who call it home on Intrepid’s brand-new Women’s Expedition.
With an expert local leader out front and a small group of like-minded travellers by your side, this trip gives you a unique insight into Peru’s culture and traditions.
Part of Intrepid’s Women’s expedition range, this eight-day adventure has been thoughtfully designed to support local women in tourism while delivering immersive experiences specifically for women travellers.
You’ll traverse the lesser-known Chinchero to Urquillos trail in the Peruvian Andes alongside an all-female crew, spend time in an Andean village learning about daily life, take part in a traditional textile workshop led by local women and experience a spiritual cleansing ritual guided by a female shaman.
Both are valuable; they operate at different levels of intervention.
🍃The Tourism Industry Is at a Crossroads
Tourism accounts for approximately 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to research published in Nature Climate Change. As awareness of climate change and biodiversity loss grows, more travelers are demanding alternatives that go beyond the traditional leisure model — ones that protect, or even restore, the environments they visit.
Two frameworks have emerged as leading responses to this challenge: ecotourism, which seeks to minimize harm to natural ecosystems while funding conservation, and regenerative tourism, a newer and more ambitious paradigm that asks not only how do we do less damage? but how do we actively leave places better than we found them?
Understanding the distinction between these two approaches is increasingly important for destination managers, tour operators, and conscious travelers alike.
My goal is to break down each concept and offer you a clear guide to which kind of trip might be right for you. That way, your next adventure can change not only your life, but also the environment you visit.
🌳What Is Regenerative Tourism?
Regenerative tourism is a philosophy and practice that goes beyond sustainability. Where sustainable tourism aims to maintain the status quo — preserving what exists without depleting it — regenerative tourism is explicitly restorative.
It frames travel as an opportunity to rebuild ecological, cultural, and social systems that have been degraded.
The concept draws heavily from regenerative agriculture and systems thinking. According to the Global Wellness Institute (2022), regenerative travel "supports the health and vitality of living systems — ecosystems, communities, and cultures — so that they can continuously renew and evolve."
The traveler is recast not as a passive consumer but as an active participant in the renewal of place.
"Regenerative tourism doesn't just aim to sustain what exists — it seeks to heal, restore, and evolve destinations so they emerge from tourism stronger than before."
Regenerative tourism might include: volunteering on habitat restoration projects; staying at properties that use land management practices that sequester carbon; engaging in cultural knowledge-exchange programs that revitalize endangered traditions; or supporting businesses designed around circular economies at the local level.
Place-specific design
Every regenerative initiative must be tailored to the destination’s specific ecology, culture, and economy — there are no universal templates.
Living systems thinking
Destinations are treated as dynamic, interconnected systems rather than static resources to be managed or protected.
Net positive impact
The benchmark is not neutrality but measurable improvement — in biodiversity, community wellbeing, cultural vitality, or economic resilience.
Community co-creation
Local communities are not beneficiaries or stakeholders — they are co-designers and primary decision-makers in tourism development.
Anna Pollock, one of the architects of regenerative tourism, describes it as a transition from a "mechanistic" tourism model to one of "living systems." In this model, destinations are understood as complex and adaptable ecosystems that tourism should support to maintain their continued vitality rather than extracting value from them.
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🪸What Is Ecotourism?
Ecotourism has a longer institutional history than regenerative tourism. The most widely cited definition comes from the International Ecotourism Society (TIES), which defines ecotourism as "responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education."
This definition, first established in 1990 and refined over subsequent decades, remains the benchmark for certification bodies and policy frameworks around the world.
Critically, the TIES definition emphasizes three core functions: conservation of natural ecosystems, community benefit for local populations, and education for travelers.
A wilderness lodge that funds anti-poaching patrols and employs local guides, or a marine reserve that uses dive tourism revenue for coral restoration — these are classic expressions of ecotourism done well.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) state in their joint publication, "Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide for Policy Makers" (2005), that ecotourism is the segment of sustainable tourism most directly linked to biodiversity conservation. It also generates the strongest economic arguments for protecting intact habitats.
Other research indicates that ecotourism faces persistent risks of "greenwashing," where operators claim the label without meeting its essential requirements. Certification programs such as the Rainforest Alliance and EarthCheck exist precisely to address this accountability gap.
From the traveler's perspective, a genuine ecotourism experience typically involves small groups, certified naturalist guides, accommodations designed to minimize the ecological footprint, and a portion of the revenue allocated to conservation or community programs.
🌳How the two frameworks diverge in philosophy, scale, and practice
While both ecotourism and regenerative tourism share a commitment to environmental responsibility and local community benefit, they differ significantly in their underlying philosophy, their relationship to place, and their ambition for impact.
Note: ecotourism is best understood as a segment of sustainable tourism, while regenerative tourism represents a paradigm shift that challenges the foundational assumptions of sustainability itself — questioning whether "sustaining" an already-degraded status quo is a sufficient ambition.
A useful metaphor: if ecotourism is a doctor who helps a patient avoid getting worse, regenerative tourism is a wellness practitioner helping that same patient become genuinely healthier.
Both are valuable; they operate at different levels of intervention.
🌱Matching the right framework to the right traveler
Both forms of travel are inherently purpose-driven, but they attract meaningfully different traveler profiles. Understanding these differences helps both travelers and destination managers align expectations and outcomes.
🦤Ecotourism Traveler
Nature-lover who seeks wildlife and wild landscapes.
Values-guided, educational experiences with experts.
Comfortable in structured small-group settings.
Wants to support conservation with minimal personal footprint.
Typically seeks a defined, curated experience.
May be a first-time "conscious traveler" graduating from mainstream tourism.
🪸Regenerative Traveler
Seeks deep, meaningful engagement with a specific place.
Willing to contribute time, skill, or labor during the trip.
Interested in cultural immersion and community co-creation.
Comfortable with less structured, co-designed itineraries.
Treats travel as a practice of reciprocity, not consumption.
Often returns to the same destination over multiple trips.
The demand for both ecotourism and regenerative experiences is growing significantly among travelers aged 18 to 40. However, regenerative travel shows a greater intention to grow among those who already identify as ecotourists.
It is important to note that no two types of travel are mutually exclusive. A well-planned destination can offer ecotourism, such as guided birdwatching and/or marine reserves, and, at the same time, offer deeper regenerative experiences such as volunteering in habitat restoration and participatory cultural programs.
The distinction between the two lies less in the activities offered and more in the philosophy and power dynamics that encompass the entire destination model.
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