Responsible and Resilient Tourism

Regenerative tourism seeks to move beyond passive sustainability by embracing a proactive approach to local restoration and revitalization. It aims to generate direct positive benefits for the places visited by transforming travellers from passive consumers into engaged participants. However, integrating intangible cultural heritage (ICH) into global tourism circuits exposes it to significant risks of standardization in response to the expectations of mass tourism (Gaye & Diombera, 2024). When subjected to the entertainment industry, sacred traditions risk being reduced to mere visual fragments through a process of “symbolic dislocation” (Jin, 2025). The introduction of automated technologies detached from their cultural context also threatens to alter the sacred dimension of these traditions (Gontor, 2025), turning culture into a decontextualized spectacle that becomes little more than a “pastiche of its own existence” (Lemay-Perreault, 2021).

To counter this trend, this contribution proposes rethinking tourism mediation through the lens of the African philosophy of Ubuntu. Using the Gla mask, a spiritual and social pillar of Wè culture in Côte d’Ivoire, as a case study, we demonstrate that the transmission of knowledge requires direct, collective and community-based relationships (Fall, 2022). Ubuntu provides an ethical framework in which practices acquire meaning through collective interaction, thus challenging processes of individualization and algorithmic decontextualization (Gwerevende & Mthombeni, 2023).

We present a model of collaborative approaches that places local communities at the heart of the co-creation of tourism experiences. This model upholds cultural and digital sovereignty by affirming that the right to decide what may be shared with visitors — and what should remain outside their view — belongs exclusively to the communities of origin (Pavis & Wallace, 2019).

To counter academic and tourism extractivism, characterized by the collection of data without meaningful benefits for the communities that hold and sustain this knowledge (Mba, 2025), our ethical framework ensures that control over the dissemination of results remains with the communities concerned (Mondain, 2023). Tourism can thus become a genuine vehicle for dignity and cultural continuity.

This doctoral research project proposes to analyse the governance of community leisure and Indigenous physical practices in Burkina Faso through the lens of regenerative and inclusive tourism. In response to the limitations of top-down approaches and conventional tourism sustainability, local communities need to be placed at the heart of the co-creation process and the preservation of intangible cultural heritage (Coulibaly, 2021).

Drawing on Rhodes’ policy network framework (1997, 2007) and historical institutionalism (Pierson, 2000), this research examines the configuration of a hybrid and fragmented public policy subsystem (Darbon et al., 2019). It analyses how the formal authority of the State and municipalities interacts with the customary legitimacy of local traditional leadership (Lavigne Delville & Mansion, 2015). Indeed, the regulation of land and access to leisure and sports spaces is subject to ongoing negotiation and arrangements with traditional leaders, particularly in the face of increasing land commodification (Moriceau & Zangré-Konseiga, 2025; Ouedraogo, 2015).

Adopting a constructivist-interpretive perspective (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), the study uses a qualitative methodology combining semi-structured interviews and participant observation (Pires, 1997; Savoie-Zajc, 2019). The objective is to identify the strategic roles played by different stakeholders, including “boundary spanners” (Williams, 2013) who bridge public administrations and traditional authorities, using a stakeholder analysis framework inspired by Mitchell, Agle and Wood (1997) and Bryson (2004).

The expected outcomes of this research will contribute to the development of a collaborative and inclusive governance framework. By promoting local knowledge and ancestral recreational practices, this model aims to transform visitors into active participants in local cultural and economic regeneration, thereby strengthening community resilience in the face of contemporary challenges.

Multi-day travel to rural and lesser-known destinations remains difficult to discover, personalise and book. This fragmentation limits market access for locally rooted destination management companies (DMCs) and small businesses, while visitor flows remain concentrated in established hotspots. Experience Buddy (XB) is a Swiss travel-technology project developed in collaboration with EPFL. Its Explore Book journey enables travellers to discover knowledge from local experts, request human guidance and obtain feasible, customisable itineraries assembled by vetted DMCs. The Book layer uses mathematical optimisation to reconcile traveller preferences with time, distance, capacity, availability and price constraints. XB’s ambition is to make destination impact a criterion in itinerary design not a sustainability label applied after the trip. Its next pilots will test how algorithms can favour locally owned businesses, disperse demand across seasons and places, respect destination capacity and reduce avoidable transport. Proposed indicators include local value retention, SME participation, seasonal and geographic dispersion, and estimated transport emissions per itinerary. XB is at prototype-validation stage: its Explore and Ask services and DMC back-office functions have been demonstrated, while the Book optimisation layer is being prepared for industrialisation. The underlying solution is supported by letters of intent from industry partners including Kuoni Tumlare, SM Travel and DMC Balkans & Europe. At the Geneva Forum, XB seeks pilot destinations and DMCs, an impact-measurement partner, a technical industrialisation partner and mission-aligned financing. The presentation will explain the model, its current limits and the pilot framework required to demonstrate regenerative outcomes.

Terra Scientifica is launching a Continuous Call for Proposals aimed at tourism, logistics, educational and territorial operators who wish to evolve their offers toward scientific, resilient and regenerative tourism. The objective is to connect field operators : travel agencies, local incoming agencies, accommodation providers, guides, tourism offices, natural parks and destinations with scientific content developed through participatory research programs led by major international actors in the field, such as, for example, the NGO Objectif Sciences International. These operators will thus be able to create new trips, stays, activities or recurring sessions for adults, families, children, teenagers, school groups, university groups or professional groups. Terra Scientifica’s offer becomes, in this context, a vehicle for viral marketing, a lead generation tool and a space for structuring the responsible and participatory tourism sector. The project responds to a profound shift in tourism demand: travelers are seeking meaning, nature, transmission, usefulness and evidence of impact. For operators, it represents an opportunity for differentiation, recurring revenue, upgrading of their offers and a progressive transformation toward mission-driven business models.