Regenerative Tourism Workshops in Iceland – A Preliminary Case Study

Abstract This research note discusses two small-scale preliminary studies on regenerative tourism conducted in the capital and rural countryside, respectively (Reykjavík and Hvammstangi, Iceland) in September 2025. Workshops were used to engage tourism practitioners and enterprises in discussions around current practices, challenges, and emerging pathways towards regenerative approaches. Participants highlighted that while sustainability has become an established discourse, regenerative tourism requires a paradigm shift that goes further than sustainability, actively contributing to the flourishing of ecosystems, communities, and cultures. The workshops are positioned as two micro-level case studies. The aim was to understand how regenerative principles are contextualized within a local tourism setting. We used action setting and discussions focusing on dialogical learning, where diverse stakeholders reflected on their roles within tourism and their connections within their communities to envision a new tourism future. Iceland, with its deep reliance on nature-based tourism and strong local identities, emerges as a particularly relevant context to explore how regenerative thinking might be mobilised beyond conceptual debate and into practical application. Our research note argues that such participatory encounters can provide empirical insights into the current understanding of regenerative tourism and possible inspiration for transformative action that strengthens the regenerative capacity of tourism systems.