Researching regenerative tourism: Call for participatory, inclusive and reflective fieldwork

Abstract

This essay explores how qualitative fieldwork in regenerative tourism research can be approached to foster more impactful and ethical scholarship. Arguing that regenerative tourism research must itself be transformative and align with regenerative thinking, the essay identifies three key principles for fieldwork: participatory, relational, and reflective. Participatory fieldwork fosters co-creation and empowers local communities, while relational approaches decentre the human and acknowledge the agency of more-than-human actors. Reflective practice, in turn, highlights the importance of researcher positionality, emotional labour, and the political nature of the field. As the provided examples demonstrate, these principles are already evident in emerging empirical studies that examine tourism through the lens of regenerative tourism.