In this short video, Andrew McEvoy, Head of the Tourism Sector at NEOM, shares how this this new destination is uniquely localizing the concept of regenerative travel.
As described in a recent New York Times article, “Regenerative travel has its roots in regenerative development and design, which includes buildings that meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED standards. The concept has applications across many fields, including regenerative agriculture, which aims to restore soils and sequester carbon.”
In the tourism context regenerative travel is understood to mean leaving a place better than you found it and in this discussion Mr. McEvoy shares how concepts and ideas presented in the book Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive By Giving More Than They Take serve as a foundation for NEOM’s concept of regenerative tourism.
For the destination developers at NEOM, the concept of regenerative travel will include a detailed measurement of carbon emissions associated with travel products and experiences, a series of rewilding and conservation initiatives, and carbon removal with permanent storage.
The goal, as Andrew McEvoy says, is “getting to a place where tourism is a net positive contributor to a better world.”