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JoAnna Haugen, Founder of Rooted, joined X. Festival to provide a keynote on the tourism trifecta, composed of sustainability, storytelling and social impact.

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She started off by mentioning that regenerative tourism refers to the act and presence of travel when having a positive impact, and added that the concept of regeneration offers a future-focused blueprint for the tourism industry.

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Nonetheless, she explained that the aim shouldn't be regenerative tourism, but to develop tourism that is regenerative. The shift can be made when embracing the powerful trifecta of storytelling, social impact and sustainability.

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If tourism intends to become a more mind-full, place-based and community-focused industry, it needs to take a more active role to support what already exists at the community level, to maximise its social impact and to support sustainable development.

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JoAnna explained that from internal commitments to improve DEI efforts to the recent launch of the Glasgow Declaration, those working in the tourism industry have demonstrated they are eager to build an industry framework that is safer, more equitable, more environmentally aware and more focused on local communities.

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Regeneration is not about creating more, but rather integrating with and returning to what already exists, which leads us to the fact that tourism can't be something separate from the destinations. Tourism should be compliant with the fabric of life in communities, thus it should integrate into communities and support their sustainable development. JoAnna explained that by following these guidelines, tourism would become a vehicle for supporting sustainable development and the SDGs in the places where it operates.

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She highlighted that the tourism industry must rewrite its narrative, from press releases to social media communications and messages conveyed by tour guides. There is a largely overlooked opportunity to use strategic, intentional and mindful storytelling to align tourism with its regenerative vision.

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In the tourism context, communication considerations include everything from the storytellers a destination decides to promote, to being mindful about how the colonial-gaze shapes marketing materials. These choices impact everything from how partnerships are developed to the stories travellers share with other people when returning home. Why and how travel service providers and destination representatives share stories can influence traveller expectations and behaviour.

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Harmful tourism models are reinforced by harmful storytelling. Dismantling and rebuilding a tourism framework requires intentionally dismantling and rebuilding communication practices. That translates into making travellers aware of how their actions may have a negative impact. JoAnna stressed the need for dominant and white-washed colonial narratives to stop, and the need for diverse stories from the heart of the community, the place and its people to be transmitted instead.

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Social impact is the effect that actions and activities have on the well-being of communities. The tourism industry should intentionally shine a light on challenging topics. By doing this, as JoAnna explained, we shift from having a negative impact on the places we visit and the people we encounter, to creating a positive impact for those places and people.

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She explained that one of the most powerful ways to do this is for tourism to partner with and introduce travellers to social enterprises and locally focused organisations addressing global challenges with hyper-local solutions, as this results in amplifying the social impact by educating travellers, which in return provides long-lasting financial effects.

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