Environmental emergency and tourism regeneration: new scenarios for territories

The climate emergency requires a radical change in the sector, moving from simple sustainability to the active regeneration of territories. Environmental challenges in tourism emerge with the climate crisis and rising temperatures and water scarcity threatening traditional destinations such as ski resorts or coastal areas. The consumption of resources becomes irrational: mass tourism consumes too much water, produces too much waste and consumes the territory, and this situation exerts a strong pressure on these “places”. Art cities and islands suffer from overtourism. The principles of tourism regeneration, beyond sustainability, are not enough to simply avoid damaging the environment; they must improve it and leave the “place” richer and better than before. The social dimension is also important: tourism must bring concrete benefits to those who live in the area throughout the year, and therefore we must be able to talk about ecological regeneration – restoring damaged ecosystems such as beaches, forests and historic centers – and we can talk about new scenarios for the territories: with slow tourism that favors ecological means of transport such as trains, bicycles and walking, and limiting the number of people who can visit the most fragile places.