Towards regenerative tourism? Insights and experiences from Danish Destination Management Organizations

Abstract

This study investigates the role of Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) in advancing regenerative tourism (RT) in Denmark. Despite its potential, RT remains underdeveloped and difficult to understand, presenting challenges in adoption and implementation. Through an exploratory qualitative analysis of interviews with nine Danish DMOs, we identify three key themes: open and receptiveness to RT principles, significant barriers to operationalization, and the dichotomy between willing and reluctant tourism stakeholders. Findings reveal a general openness to RT among DMOs, tempered by conceptual ambiguity, measurement challenges, and resistance from stakeholders. The study underscores DMOs’ potential as critical change agents in fostering RT by bridging academic insights with practical applications. To answer the call for increased regenerative literacy in the field, we advocate the need for an increased collaboration between academia and DMOs to foster actionable blueprints, adaptable key performance indicators and documented (un)successful RT initiatives tailored to local contexts so both DMOs and academia can make tangible shifts towards RT beyond the conceptual. The research also contributes to the discourse on transitioning DMOs from infinite growth-driven entities to stewards of sustainable and regenerative tourism. Future work calls for expanded comparative studies and deeper academia-practitioner collaboration to refine RT’s theoretical and practical foundations.