Anna Pollock on “Regeneration: An Essential Shift for the Future of Tourism”
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences hosted a conference featuring Anna Pollock, an expert in Conscious Travel, focusing on regeneration and healing. The conference was held on the 10th of March, 2025, from 10:30 to 12:30 at the NHL Stenden University campus site in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. There was no recording made to motive in-person attendance, create an informal and personal atmosphere and facilitate optimal exchange of thoughts. The conference was the result of collaboration between NHL Stenden’s European Tourism Futures Institute (ETFI), Tourism Management BA program, Master International Leisure, Tourism and Events Management (MILTEM), Hotel Management School and Frisian Destination Management Organization (DMO) Merk Fryslân.
Dr Stefan Hartman, head of department at the ETFI, opened the session and clearly expressed his enthusiasm about the expertise of Anna Pollock in regeneration and innovative tourism and hospitality as well as highlighted the importance of reevaluating a shared commitment towards the future of the industry.
Anna Pollock’s contribution emphasized the need for a drastic change in the tourism industry by pointing out the internal flaws of current systems and challenges born by modern global contexts. Starting her contribution, Pollock stated that the focal point would be regeneration as an umbrella concept rather than specifically the tourism industry since the nature of the topic requires a vast and more sophisticated approach. The roadmap was presented in four sections: tourism as a flawed model, the global context, the type and level of change needed and an introduction to regenerative ideas. It was strongly stressed that tourism exists not only by itself but also in a broader context that must be understood for a meaningful change.
Pollock drew attention to the flaws of the current tourism model by putting overtourism in the forefront as the leading indicator of these flaws. Overtourism in popular destinations was stated as a manifestation of systematic issues emerging on various scales. The examples provided in the contribution, such as the overcrowded summit of Mount Everest and a long queue on the Great Wall of China, demonstrated the issue’s severity. The underlying causes were cited as growth in productive capacity, rising disposable incomes, affordable travel options and increasing digital connection thanks to social media. Strikingly, Pollock indicated that the main problem is considering tourism merely as an industry by ignoring its complexities as a system highly connected with societal and environmental factors. However, tourism has been progressively dealt with from an industrial point of view, which takes destinations off the table as cultural exchange and experience places and transforms them into conveyor belts of consumption.
As she continued to the global context, Pollock provided striking statistics: “In 5 years, humanity will need 1.7 planets to sustain itself, while the number will become 3 by 2050.” For the global context, she defined multidimensional challenges with “polycrisis” and “metacrisis” terms, the latter highlighting a need for metamorphosis, which essentially requires a paradigm shift and system change rather than partial adjustments. According to Pollock, the root causes of these crises are our current mental models and worldviews, which shape how we interpret the complexities of our environment by segmenting the world into more convenient boxes. The downside of these more convenient boxes is that they may prevent us from having a more holistic approach.
When introducing regenerative thinking, Pollock highlighted that every action holds the potential for creating change. She continued by pointing out that each individual has a role in regeneration, followed by defining the 5Ps: perspective or paradigm, purpose, people as potential, place as home and community and practice. To create stronger connections and increase our resilience to global challenges, we must focus more on these 5Ps rather than individual problems.
Emphasizing the need for a paradigm shift, Pollock sees the importance of facilitating significant changes across various scales. Particularly in tourism, a paradigm shift seems inevitable for transforming the industry into a regenerative practice so as not to lose its social license to operate.
In conclusion, Anna Pollock provided insights into regenerative tourism as well as opened the door to thinking critically about a more regenerative, sustainable and responsible future by encouraging collective efforts for regenerative practices. As observed in the Q&A session, the contribution urged participants to reflect on their own roles within the tourism ecosystem and seek more equitable and responsible options within the industry. The discussions sparked by Pollock’s insights will likely echo beyond the session by inspiring further dialog and action toward a regenerative tourism paradigm.
