The pandemic has accentuated a desire for 'slow travel' as people re-evaluate their life priorities and relationship with work, with an increasing emphasis on 'giving back' to the places visited.
Tourism has changed dramatically since the rise of online booking services and homestay platforms.
Diane Dredge is director of Tourism CoLab, a social enterprise think tank researching how visitors can give back to local communities and the environment. She says a "regenerative tourist" is typically someone mindful of their carbon footprint and local spend. "I've made lifelong friends from the experiences as volunteers often return, local Yolngu become your new family and crew members become colleagues," she says.
Referencing the "WOOFer" tradition of volunteering on farms, she says there's a history of providing visitors with free accommodation in exchange for their contribution to a local community. "In times of great disruption, people become very creative in the solutions that they build," she says.Matchmaking platforms
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