Regenerative Tourism
What is regenerative tourism?
The concept of regenerative tourism focuses on tourism as a force for good, giving more to the destination than it takes by supporting positive social, economic, cultural and environmental benefits. For example, visitors being offered a discount to stay in the area while volunteering on conservation projects or self-catering accommodation providers donating a week’s income a year to a fund which supports local residents/projects.
How does this apply to Cumbria?
Tourism is the heart of what makes Cumbria an amazing place to live, work, study and invest.
Our environment, culture and way of life are fundamental to the success of Cumbria’s visitor economy and the wellbeing of the people who live here. In turn, tourism helps supports local businesses and improves access to cultural amenities, green spaces and infrastructure which enhance the daily quality of life for residents and visitors.
For many years Cumbria has led the way in encouraging and supporting a more sustainable approach to tourism across the county, but we can – and must – go further.
A sustainable and regenerative tourism approach underpins the county’s Destination Management Plan (DMP) and we are embedding this:
- Across the organisation and our daily work
- By supporting the industry
- Through our influence and partnerships
Here are just some of the ways Cumbria Tourism is taking action:
Leading Cumbria’s Destination Management Plan
The county’s collective Destination Management Plan (DMP) outlines a shared vision and action plan for balanced, regenerative growth and is the template for supporting responsible tourism that benefits the environment and supports vibrant communities. Working alongside a wide range of partners we continue to progress our collective plans to deliver regenerative tourism.
This is economic growth with regenerative impact is at its heart. For example, ‘action areas’ focus on: extending the season, dispersing visitors to lesser visited areas, community engagement and the development of a food and drink strategy. It’s all about growing the value of tourism without growing the volume.
These action areas have economic benefits, but they also have social, cultural and environmental benefits too:
Dispersing visitors across the county spreads the impact and economic benefit of tourism. Actions include the development of ‘slow tourism’ product to support this.
Community engagement activity helps to communicate the benefits of tourism and helps us understand how tourism can better support communities.
The food and drink strategy aims to support local procurement; supporting our farming heritage and keeping more of the tourism income from food and drink spend in county.
Increasing the length of stay and shifting day trippers to staying visitors has a significant impact on the amount of carbon generated per visitor, as travel to and from the county per visitor night reduces.
Supporting businesses
Through our day-to-day work with a wide range organisations and businesses, Cumbria Tourism is proactively involved in helping bring this vision to life.
A great starting point for tourism operators is to explore the top tips in our online sustainability toolkit, which explores practical areas ranging from waste reduction and saving energy/water to sustainable staff travel, procurement and influencing visitor behaviour.
Influence and partnership
Cumbria’s Strategic Visitor Management Group (SVMG)
Cumbria Tourism is a key partner of the countywide Strategic Visitor Management Group (SVMG), bringing together key organisations to manage visitor pressures and help protect the special place we’re all proud to call home.
The Strategic Visitor Management Group includes a number of partner organisations, including the Lake District National Park Authority both Cumbria’s local authorities, Cumbria Police, Mountain Rescue and Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service, and major landowners such as The National Trust and Forestry England.
SVMG acts as a coordinated, multi-stakeholder body in a collective effort to manage the impacts of visiting – such as litter, parking, visitor movement- and ensure Cumbria remains a clean, safe and welcoming place for all.
A number of positive changes are being driven directly through the group:
Visitor behaviour interventions such as joint ranger patrols and education campaigns championing ‘leave no trace’ and Adventure Smart’
Love Windermere Partnership
Cumbria Tourism is working with a range of partners within the Love Windermere Partnership, to help bring about a healthier future for Windermere and the surrounding area – balancing the needs of businesses, communities and the environment.
We believe that working together is the most effective way to bring about lasting change and the Love Windermere Partnership’s Action Plan is the first coordinated, science-led programme of practical actions in over a decade, aiming to improve water quality and restore the ecological health of the Windermere catchment.
Cumbria Tourism’s role centres on helping to educate businesses around maximising water efficiency, promoting environmental sustainability and helping tourism operators have positive informed conversations with their guests/customers about water quality and how they can help.
Encouraging visitor giving
The concept of ‘giving back’ resonates strongly with visitors, and many of Cumbria Tourism’s member businesses actively encourage visitors to make voluntary donations to protect our local landscapes, communities and cultural heritage.
Significant sums are already raised annually through voluntary visitor and business giving, helping a range of local charitable causes – from hands-on community projects to work which supports biodiversity, water quality, heritage and more.
In the latest Cumbria Visitor Survey, 14% of visitors confirmed they made an average one-off donation of £7.50 to local good causes and charities while they here in Cumbria. A third of these contributions went to Mountain Rescue. Some also make regular donations, either monthly or annually.
Working with businesses and partners, Cumbria Tourism is actively encouraging more visitors and businesses to engage with local charities and nature / climate based projects to help support tourism as a force for good.
Supporting sustainable travel for all
As set out in the Destination Management Plan (DMP), we want to increase the number of people arriving and moving around sustainably. By working with a range of partner organisations we seek to make low-carbon journeys easier, more accessible and more appealing for both visitors and local residents. The aim is to inspire longer-term behaviour change, helping people understand the benefits of choosing greener ways to travel.
This includes:
Cumbria Tourism's Smarter Travel Plans
are enabling tourism business to send out personalised online travel plans to their guests/customers before they visit, to help them plan their trips in the most efficient way possible. Offering combined options using trains, buses, cars, cycling and walking, the Smart Travel Planner displays exactly how much carbon can be saved by travelling smart. Businesses can sign up for free.
Our award-winning ‘Let’s Go Car Free’ campaign
actively promotes Cumbria’s network of public transport alongside ‘active travel’ routes like cycling and walking trails. Visitors are encouraged to make more the journey part of the experience and forge more meaningful connections with local landscapes and communities through inspirational online content, itineraries and PR, alongside practical journey-planning tools. As a result, local train operators have reported uplifts in their passenger numbers.
The Three Valleys project
is all about promoting a long-term change in how visitors, residents and workers travel around Hawkshead, Langdale and Ullswater. Local partnership groups have been set up – overseen by the county’s ‘Strategic Visitor Management Group’ – to create sustainable, area-specific solutions to distinct transport challenges.
Cumbria Tourism’s Worker Transport activity
focuses on finding smarter, sustainable transport solutions for tourism workers: championing initiatives to improve connectivity, helping shape local transport policy like council bus service improvement plans (BSIPs) and ultimately, reducing car dependency. Recent success stories have included helping to secure more flexible early morning and evening bus services to support staff shift patterns.
Inclusive and accessible for all
The right infrastructure and resources
Cumbria Tourism is working with a range of organisations to support access to quality jobs in tourism and hospitality. This includes the development of housing, upskilling and transport to work, as well as supporting public realm improvements to help support visitors to have a responsible stay.
This activity helps support a better quality of life for workers/residents, alongside better quality leisure opportunities. Striving for affordable visitor accommodation will enable more younger people and those from lower income groups to enjoy the benefits of the area.
Supporting local people into jobs
Cumbria Tourism’s award-winning ‘Welcome to Work’ project has been helping local people directly into work, matching jobseekers with vacancies and engaging education providers to promote tourism and hospitality as a potential career for young people.
In the first 12 months alone, ‘Welcome to Work’ engaged with 370 jobseekers and help secured jobs for almost of a third in our industry. Crucially, the aim of this UK SPF initiative – alongside both local authorities – is to break down barriers for those who are furthest from the labour market, including:
Anyone with special educational needs and disabilities or physical conditions
Those living in remote or economically and socially deprived parts of Cumbria
Young people who are ‘not in education, employment, or training’ (NEETs)
People with mental health conditions
Refugees
Ex-offenders
Our partners also include other not-for-profits and charities such as People First, Growing Well, Inspira and Movement to Work, Right to Work and the Centre for Leadership Performance.
Cumbria Tourism Charitable Fund and MyCumbria
Administered by Cumbria Community Foundation, Cumbria Tourism’s Charitable Fund is empowering local talent to stay and thrive in our county.
The fund is offering grants of up to £500 to students aged 16+ and those newly employed in the county’s tourism and hospitality industry. These grants can be used for essential items such as uniforms, specialist equipment, course materials, travel or even hardship support to help complete training. Applications are open now.
10% of all proceeds from our MyCumbria residents’ loyalty card are also donated into Cumbria Tourism’s Charitable Fund, ensuring that MyCumbria card-holders are directly supporting their communities.
Meanwhile, MyCumbria’s fantastic range of discounts encourage residents to make the most of what our county has to offer, offering them incentives to ‘support local’ and helping to generate greater footfall for businesses all year round.
How is Cumbria Tourism reducing its own carbon footprint?
As a team, Cumbria Tourism has developed an internal Sustainable Development Action Plan, which sets out a series of actions to become more sustainable as an organisation and to move us towards Net Zero.
From a carbon perspective, the actions primarily focus on scope 1 and 2 emissions (more direct emissions, which we have more control over).
With more than 75% of the actions completed or underway by the end of 2025, we are continuing to review this in 2026 with a focus on how we can impact our scope 3 emissions (our more indirect emissions, through our procurement policies, etc).
What difference have we made?
We used the Carbon Trust to calculate our carbon footprint in 2019; at the time, it was 76,375 kg CO2e per year. Although we are in the process of re-calculating our carbon footprint, we estimate that we’ve reduced it by at least 12,000 kg CO2e per year.
Hybrid working is reducing travel to and from the office. Based on a generic comparison, that’s estimated to save 2,118 kg CO2e per year, but the real figure is likely to be more given actual distances travelled by staff.
Our EV pool car saves on average 370 kg of CO2e per month or 4,440 kg CO2e per year.
Introducing LED lighting to the office building saves 25.5 kWhrs of energy or 5,290 kg CO2e per year.
A 66% reduction in the staff travel and expenses budget over a 5 year period.
In early 2026 we installed solar panels on the Cumbria Tourism office building in Staveley to provide some of our own clean electricity. This will reduce the amount of electricity we use from the grid and cut our carbon emissions.