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2026: Sustainable Tourism Embedded - 7 Themes Shaping Its Next Phase

2026: Sustainable Tourism Embedded - 7 Themes Shaping Its Next Phase

Sustainable Tourism is no longer sitting at the edge of strategy conversations for destinations and businesses. It has crossed a threshold. It is increasingly assumed as a baseline – in markets, in funding criteria, in professional knowledge and competence, in travel offers and in regulation.

When something becomes baseline, it stops being called out as a specialist agenda or competence and starts reshaping everyday discussions and decisions e.g. what qualifies as a strong programme, what evidence is expected, what questions are asked at approval stage, what success looks like in practice.

We are feeling and hearing this in our day-to-day work now. Even if the words “sustainable” and “regenerative” are not used, their principles underlie the narrative. It is also increasingly visible in every part of the system, from consumer expectations to how capital flows and how policy is written.

In the last three Booking.com Sustainable Travel Reports, 75-80% of global travellers say sustainability is important to them and that they want to travel more sustainably. Statista’s 2025 data echoes this, with 83% of travellers worldwide saying sustainable travel matters.

Global tourism policy advice from bodies like the OECD, WTTC and UNWTO, alongside first‑ever major reports and market forecasts on regenerative tourism, now treat ecosystem health, community benefit and regenerative practice as the next phase of tourism’s evolution, implying that “simple sustainability” is already assumed as the starting point.

At the same time, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive work is turning climate and ESG disclosure into basic business infrastructure, with requirements cascading down supply chains to smaller operators. This is backed up by opinion’s from Earthcheck in their ESG Guidance to the hospitality industry.

“Place” is coming to the centre of discussions – place as inspiration and place as benchmark. Having spoken about The Place Paradigm for at least five years now, we are not surprised to see this evolution.

Against this backdrop, the discussion is moving on from whether sustainable tourism matters and what needs to be done to get the sustainability box ticked. The focus is firmly shifting towards how far meaningful sustainability is embedded in what is actually being delivered, and how that is evidenced in day‑to‑day practice.

 

The following seven themes capture where this embedded baseline is now reshaping strategy, operations and investment decisions across the tourism system.

1. Meaningful, immersive travel becomes a mainstream expectation

This isn’t a new theme. It’s been said for a long time that guests are no longer satisfied with ticking off sights; they are looking for experiences that align with their values and connect them to the places they visit. Their travel choices become a reflection of their personal values and worldview, nowhere more so than in their expressions of sustainable behaviour. Supporting the Booking.com and Statista research already mentioned, Trip.com’s 2024 Sustainable Travel Consumer Report shows that 54.7% of travellers actively seek access to sustainable options when booking online, and 72.4% are attracted to providers that highlight sustainability offerings. This underlines how consumer interest in sustainability is shaping platform design and purchasing decisions.

For destinations, this reinforces a long‑standing truth: experiences draw their power from place. Landscape, heritage, everyday life and local stories move from backdrop to core asset. The work for public agencies increasingly sits in supporting places to be experienced with depth, care and integrity, rather than volume alone.

 2. Trust emerges as a new currency

As sustainability messages multiply, trust has become the differentiator. Growing demand for sustainable travel sits alongside rising scepticism about claims that feel vague or unsubstantiated. Booking.com’s 2024 research finds that accommodation labelled as sustainable is more appealing to 47% of travellers and that 67% believe all travel booking sites should use the same sustainable certifications or labels. At the same time, its 2025 report suggests around one‑third of consumers doubt the authenticity of accommodation sustainability claims, signalling a growing trust gap.

In response, guests, platforms and regulators are converging on one expectation: credibility. Increasingly, third‑party certification, verified baselines and clearly communicated targets are what allow businesses and destinations to say, with confidence, “here is what we are actually doing”.

For public sector teams, this has direct implications. Businesses look for guidance in an environment where the rules are tightening and clarity is still evolving. The leadership task here would appear to be the creation of conditions where trust can be built consistently over time, through shared standards and credible pathways.

 3. Evidence becomes infrastructure

Behind that trust shift sits a structural change: ESG data is becoming as fundamental to running a tourism business as financial accounts. EarthCheck’s 2025 hospitality ESG guidance notes that large hospitality businesses are already being asked to report across all three scopes and that pressure is now cascading to smaller operators. Even micro‑businesses outside mandatory reporting scope are increasingly being asked for simple, verifiable data by larger, in‑scope partners. In this context, simple, reliable metrics on energy, water, waste and emissions are becoming basic business infrastructure, not a side project.

Many programmes were not originally designed with this level of evidence in mind. Funding templates, programme metrics and reporting structures are adapting in real time. The opportunity now lies in normalising usable, proportionate data as part of destination development infrastructure, rather than treating it as an additional layer.

 4. Supply chains carry growing significance

If evidence is the new infrastructure, supply chains are where much of the action is. Studies and industry guidance now suggest that Scope 3 value‑chain emissions typically account for 70-95% of a tourism or hospitality business’s footprint, covering food, guest transport, construction and procurement. Recent hospitality analysis describes Scope 3 as the defining test of ESG leadership, with procurement and supplier data as the main control levers.

Policy and advisory work from the EU, OECD, WTTC and UNWTO increasingly emphasises Scope 3 emissions, supplier engagement and value‑chain transparency. CSRD formalises this by requiring in‑scope organisations to gather comprehensive sustainability information from suppliers, including non‑listed SMEs, to complete Scope 3 disclosures.

For tourism businesses, that means supplier relationships, contracts and purchasing choices are becoming central to sustainability strategy. For destinations, it also elevates the role of coordination: shared standards, supplier engagement and clear guidance on procurement increasingly shape what is possible in practice.

 5. Collective approaches gain momentum

The businesses and destinations gaining ground in 2026 are those working collectively rather than in isolation. Because energy grids, waste systems and supply chains are shared, one “best in class” property can only go so far on its own. This pattern is now visible across funding design, pilot programmes and destination‑level initiatives.

At destination level, shared training, joint supplier engagement and coordinated programmes allow businesses to move together rather than navigating complexity alone. For public sector leaders, influence is increasingly exercised through facilitation, coordination and trust‑building – shaping the conditions for collective progress, not just individual excellence.

 6. Impact is judged at place level

A further shift is that the unit of assessment is moving from the individual business to the destination. Regenerative tourism thinking asks what the net impact is on the place overall, not just on a single site.

Aforementioned policy advice from the OECD, WTTC and UNWTO on tourism, climate and biodiversity points in the same direction, emphasising ecosystem health, community benefit and cultural continuity as core measures of success by 2030. Strategic frameworks increasingly ask whether tourism strengthens the overall vitality of a destination, environmentally, socially, culturally and economically.

This is where the lens of place comes sharply into focus. For some time, regenerative thinking has challenged tourism to account for its net contribution to places rather than individual projects alone or to nation-level GDP. That thinking is now showing up in policy discussions, even where the language of “regeneration” is not used explicitly.

For public sector tourism leaders, this reframes accountability. Programme design, local business support, infrastructure investment and visitor management decisions are increasingly read through a place‑based lens i.e. the extent to which tourism and tourism interventions contribute to the long‑term health and resilience of the place as a whole.

 7. Regeneration sets the direction of travel and raises the bar

The fact that two substantial, system‑wide reports on regenerative tourism have just been published is significant: they frame regeneration as a distinct sector, with its own investment logic, metrics and growth trajectory. Across major global reports and advisory bodies, regenerative principles now shape how the next phase of tourism is described, with market analysis positioning regenerative tourism as a growing segment that links tourism to biodiversity restoration, community resilience and cultural continuity. One 2025 forecast estimates that the regenerative tourism market will grow from 8.2 billion USD in 2024 to nearly 29 billion USD by 2033, driven by demand for biodiversity restoration, community engagement and cultural preservation (Regenerative Tourism Market Research Report 2033).  FII Institute’s Unlocking Innovation for Regenerative Tourism, the European Economic and Social Committee’s opinion to the EU, OECD tourism policy work and WTTC/UNWTO biodiversity commitments all position regeneration – restoring ecosystems and strengthening communities – as the next phase of tourism’s evolution to 2030, not a passing trend. Even where the word “regenerative” is not used explicitly, the language in funding priorities, climate and biodiversity strategies and place‑based policy mirrors regenerative principles.

Sustainability now operates as baseline; regeneration raises expectations around outcomes and direction of travel. Articulated through international reports, policy conversations and destination strategies, regenerative tourism signals that reducing harm is no longer seen as sufficient on its own. For many leaders, the tension lies in being asked to steer towards regenerative outcomes while still working within systems designed for growth, throughput and short‑term cycles.

What an embedded sustainability baseline means for leadership

Sustainability has done its job. It has shifted the baseline.

Sustainable tourism is no longer a side project or a slogan. It is how credible destinations now do business. What matters now is how seriously destinations and businesses respond to what that baseline demands: credible evidence, aligned supply chains, collective effort and outcomes that strengthen place over time.

The real question for leaders is not whether to engage, but how boldly they are prepared to lean into place, evidence and regeneration – and how fast they can re-tune systems built for volume to deliver value that communities, visitors and landscapes can actually feel.

 

The dynamics outlined in this article reflect the conditions that gave rise to our proprietary framework The Place Paradigm®. It uses place to anchor decisions about growth, investment, collaboration and visitor experience, and to test whether programmes, partnerships and policies are genuinely strengthening the long-term vitality of destinations. Get in touch if you’d like to know more about it – just email [email protected].

 

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