Regenerative Tourism through Eastern Philosophy: Re-centering the Subject in Tourism Theory

Abstract Regenerative tourism has emerged as a promising paradigm that seeks to move beyond sustainability by generating net-positive outcomes for ecosystems and communities. Existing scholarship has made significant advances by conceptualizing tourism as a living system embedded in complex social-ecological relations. Yet, despite this systems-oriented turn, a critical dimension remains under-theorized: the subject of regenerative action. Who acts regeneratively, and why should such action persist under market and institutional pressures? This research note argues that regenerative tourism requires an explicit theory of subject formation. Drawing on Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, the paper develops the Regenerative Subject Axis (RSA), a conceptual framework that specifies the inner conditions of regenerative agency. Buddhism contributes an ontological de-centering of the self grounded in compassion; Daoism offers an action logic of attunement through wu wei; and Confucianism provides a scalable ethic of responsibility rooted in self-cultivation. By integrating these traditions, the RSA reframes regeneration as ethical participation in living worlds rather than instrumental system optimization. The paper contributes to regenerative tourism theory by (1) addressing the missing subject problem, (2) advancing inner transformation from a toolkit to a theory of agency, and (3) offering a parsimonious framework to explain the durability of regenerative practices.