Catalan Tourism Board’s Mentoring program in Regenerative tourism

Regenerative tourism is a tourism development proposal that goes beyond sustainability by offering a more holistic and systemic vision of territories and destinations, perceiving them as living and dynamic organisms in which different elements (natural, social, cultural, heritage, etc.) come together, derived from the integral long-term relationship that has existed between their people, the natural environment and history. This tourism model focuses on the relationship between people, between locals and visitors, with the ecosystem that surrounds them and the experiences that all parties live, contributing positively to the welfare of all of them.

The Catalan Tourism Agency, in the past, had already carried out, with the support of Pax#, other initiatives to promote this paradigm in the Catalan tourism sector. And this year 2025, on the occasion of Catalonia’s year as World Region of Gastronomy, the challenge of promoting a pilot mentoring program in 16 food and wine tourism companies in Catalonia to accompany and advise them in the transition to regenerative tourism.

This pilot program, designed in 2024 with a different contracting object, would be implemented for the first time taking these participating companies as pioneers.

In order to implement this program, a methodology was created specifically for this need and to link the principles of regenerative tourism with the world of enogastronomy and enogastronomic tourism. Based on this scheme, the mentoring or work process was structured in four main phases or modules:

• Module I: Introduction to regenerative tourism. Welcome, presentation of the program and first training action to make clear the scope of the concept and its applicability to food and wine tourism.
• Module II: Operational and circular management of the organization and the activity. In this phase we worked on how to apply concepts of regeneration, circular economy and sustainability in the business management of the organization and tourism activity. The facilities of the 16 companies were visited in person.
• Module III: Design of the experience and the storytelling. In this phase we worked on the construction of the story, applying regenerative elements and on the creation or design of the regenerative tourism experience.
• Module IV: Presentation of the experience. The 16 companies had the opportunity to present the results obtained from the Program and their tourism experiences created, in a closing plenary session.

This pilot project served as a starting point to begin to apply and ground regenerative tourism in a practical way within the framework of food and wine tourism. It was an enriching process, where links and community were generated, and the companies created very creative proposals and initiatives. It was also a very enriching project for us, as it helped us to improve or finish polishing details of the methodology and the Program created for the next edition.

We hope that this program will have continuity and be able to continue helping the Catalan tourism sector in the transition towards regenerative tourism!