The future of tourism: embracing sustainability and regeneration initiatives

By definition, sustainability and regeneration initiatives are activities that leave a lasting positive impact on places and people. They’re also an opportunity for destination marketing organizations (DMOs) to build meaningful partnerships outside the cohort of the usual suspects. 

While many DMOs are grappling with their role in driving the sustainability imperative in their destinations, some innovators outside our industry are confident that destination organizations are the key to unlocking the community alignment necessary for success.

Edmar Luiz Xavier Neto and Joel Marriott can read the writing on the wall. Can we?

Neto is the creator of the Strong Farm & Rural Shores Destinations program, a project in Canada focused on creating new paths for sustainable development to become a reality for families and businesses in communities in rural areas. He was born and raised on farms in Brazil, with experiences ranging from farming to sustainable biomass and methane energy, and he has dedicated his life to creating sustainable development tools to help people with regeneration strategies for businesses, communities, and the planet.

Marriott is an Indigenous entrepreneur from White Bear First Nations in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. He is a visionary and the founder of TOP Carbon Capture, a construction technology company with a focus on industrial hemp building materials that are net zero. TOP Carbon Capture develops sustainable options for single-family homes, multi-family dwellings, and large-scale structures. TOP Carbon Capture has projects and facilities in the US and Canada.

Both Neto and Marriott came to tourism because they saw its potential to engage and align communities and visitors to create new, holistic, regenerative opportunities for places and people.