Regenerative business practices

Building on a co-created ethnographic case study of a hospitality business in Tasmania, this chapter demonstrates how regenerative practices can activate sustainability transitions within a local community. It argues that regenerative and sustainability perspectives complement each other and calls for a multi-stakeholder, multi-level regenerative approach to tourism that prioritizes community-level development over tourism-centric goals. Regenerative tourism, understood as a set of evolving practices embedded in social-ecological systems and local development approaches, revolves around wellbeing and community-based regeneration strategies. Acknowledging the place-based nature of regenerative practices, the study applies the concept of entrepreneuring to explore how sustainability transitions unfold through everyday business operations, collaborative relationships, and engagement with broader institutional settings. The business under study disrupts conventional hospitality norms by reimagining its operations, products, and staffing, while deepening community engagement and prioritizing social capital. As fluctuating tourism activity can destabilize niche local economies, the case illustrates how small, socially embedded enterprises transform and regenerate not only their approach to tourism but also their wider community relationships and social structures, fostering collective self-reliance and agency. Embracing a regenerative approach is not about tourism in isolation, but about contributing to a broader, embedded, and holistic objective. By combining regenerative and sustainability perspectives, this chapter addresses the implications of this shift for hospitality operators and suggests pathways for sustainability transitions.