Entrepreneuring for regenerative tourism. Doing business differently in Tasmania’s regional hospitality industry

Abstract

Regenerative tourism has gained ground during the pandemic crisis as a set of practices and processes that have the potential to refashion the industry. Based on a co-created ethnographic case study focussing on a local restaurant in a popular tourism region in Tasmania, this study raises the question as to what business strategies offer opportunities for regenerative practices to materialise and mitigate concomitant challenges in a post-pandemic world. Drawing attention to the social dimension of entrepreneurship, this study highlights the significance of local embeddedness for tourism businesses to successfully transition to regenerative practices. Conceptually, this investigation is guided by the notion of ‘entrepreneuring’, which denotes an emancipatory process where economic activities are largely motivated by an orientation towards social change and the desire to make a difference in the world. Implementing regenerative practices requires entrepreneurs to disrupt the status quo and do things differently, such as drawing on social networks instead of financial resources, altering discourses and mindsets and, ultimately, pushing for innovation and transformative change. The implications of this paradigm shift for operators in the tourism and hospitality sector need to be prioritized in future tourism research.