Reaffirming sensory ethnography: sensing regenerative tourist practices in dark-sky protected zones

This paper affirms the importance of ethnography as a mechanism for identifying regenerative practices in tourism research through exploring a dark-sky destination. National parks in the United Kingdom have initiated leisure-based festivals to raise ecological awareness and preserve protected dark-sky reserves. Yet, scholars have paid little attention to how public engagement in dark-sky festivals can raise ecological awareness of light pollution, the climate crisis, and sustainability issues, and none have explored the regenerative potential that this research addresses. To understand the impact of dark-sky tourism in protected areas, a novel theoretical approach combines Sarah Pink’s (Citation2009) conceptualisation of emplaced sensory ethnography with theories of regenerative tourism. Conducted during the North York Moors National Park Dark Skies Festival in February 2024, the research employed emplaced sensory ethnography to capture the sensory perceptions and practices of dark-sky tourism stakeholders. The study offers new insights into how dark-sky festivals engender sustainable practices among stakeholders through co-produced, emplaced sensory experiences in dark-sky reserves.