Regenerative Travel Symposium

On Sunday July 3d, 2025, I had the pleasure of attending the inaugural Future of Regenerative Travel Symposium in Asia, hosted at Parkroyal Collection in Singapore. The event brought together a community of hoteliers, travel brands, designers, online travel agents, certifiers, regenerative thinkers, hotel CSOs, and founders committed to reshaping the tourism industry into a force for good.

The symposium wasn’t about sustainability as usual, it was about regeneration. This profound shift was reflected in every panel, workshop, and conversation. Instead of focusing on reducing harm, the community here is focused on restoring ecosystems, strengthening local communities, and embedding circularity and care into business models. The atmosphere was one of hope, experimentation, and not just intention.

Hotels like the Datai Langkawi in Malaysia, Shinta Mani Mustang in Nepal prove that real luxury is eco-conscious. Sumba Hospitality Foundation shows that a non-profit hotel in which all staff are students going through a donor-funded hotel school show that local empowerment can lead to loyal customers.

From biodiversity protection to community-led marine restoration, from decolonizing travel narratives to embedding Indigenous knowledge systems, the event showed that regenerative travel isn’t just possible. It’s already happening across Asia. The challenge is now one of coordination, amplification, and accountability.

What This Means for Organizations Creating Positive Impact

For those of us building businesses like Handprint, the symposium offered both inspiration and direction. Regeneration is not a fringe idea, it’s becoming a strategic opportunity that drives differentiation and loyalty. As the regenerative travel movement grows, it offers a blueprint for how businesses across industries can align profit with ecological and social flourishing.

The key takeaway? Impact must be lived and experienced, not just reported.

In travel, this means integrating local impact into the guest experience. This is where opportunities lie. While the hotels are doing an excellent job at analog experiences, the digital experience before and after guests come and go can significantly be improved.

In fintech, it means embedding impact in every transaction. In ride-hailing, companies can regenerate the planet with every kilometer. In consumer goods, it means aligning supply chains with planetary boundaries and community wellbeing. What unites all these is the commitment to embed impact into core operations, not bolt it on as a CSR afterthought.

At Handprint, we often talk about the transition from footprint reduction to handprint creation. This event reaffirmed that businesses must go beyond doing “less bad” and instead become active participants in healing the world. It’s not enough to count your carbon. The regeneration movement is much more ambitious. Those taking part want to grow corals, plant mangroves, and support local communities and so with with integrity, transparency, and continuity.

And in order to achieve that, you need to figure out how to make regeneration good for your business.

To everyone I met at the symposium, thank you for the inspiration. Let’s keep building this future together.