Regenerative tourism on rise in Da Nang as travelers seek to 'give back' to places they visit
DNO - As the environment is increasingly under pressure and damage, regenerative tourism is emerging as a growing trend. This type of tourism enables travelers to feel that their journeys contribute positively to the environment and support local communities.
Travel combined with tree planting
Over the past 15 years, the Jack Tran Tours Hoi An Company has integrated nipa palm planting activities into its tours for tourists who really look for experiences that can reconnect them with nature and have authentic engagement with local people.
To date, more than 3,000 nipa palms have been planted by tourists near the Cua Dai Estuary. Most of them have grown well, contributing a small part to the mangrove ecosystem here.
Meanwhile, the Toom Sara tourist site in Hoa Vang Commune has introduced the project "Forest, Please Breathe!" since the start of the year. The intention of the project is to gradually replace existing acacia forests with native tree species, helping to restore primary forest biodiversity, improve soil quality, protect water sources, and mitigate the impacts of climate change.
In the near future, the project aims to develop the product into an annual activity called “Forest Planting Day”. This will be a periodically organized event where the community, tourists and organizations and businesses can join hands to regreen the forests, contributing to the regeneration of sustainable ecosystems.
Research from Booking.com shows that 76% of travelers wish to adopt more environmentally friendly travel habits, and over 70% are willing to join activities that help protect and revive the destinations they visit.
During famtrips and surveys of tours in the southwestern part of the city, travel agencies also recommend that tree planting and afforestation activities associated with educational tourism to raise awareness of wildlife protection, such as gray-shanked douc langurs in Tam My, are both attractive to tourists and easy to turn into eco-friendly tourism products.
Changing mindset
Da Nang is transforming its growth model from a linear economy to a circular one, with priority given to clean energy and green tourism, as part of its goal to build an “ecological, smart, and livable city” and move toward net-zero emissions. To realize this goal, a stronger vision and action to address tourism-related waste is needed.
Da Nang is considered a pioneer in reducing tourism waste. It is home to the Vietnam Zero Waste Tourism Network and the country’s first hotel certified as “plastic-waste-free”. The city (formerly part of Quang Nam Province) is also one of two localities piloting a project to reduce plastic waste in the tourism sector.
In fact, a number of tours centered on waste circulation and resource recovery have been operated in the communes and wards of former Hoi An City and Go Noi Commune, including “Soap of Hope”, “Fabric for Life”, “Compost Making”, “Reed Planting and Reed Straws”, and “Herbal Seedlings”. These tours have been enthusiastically received by tourists, especially foreigners, even with some tours lasting up to a week.
These examples show that with creative approaches, waste treatment and circular-waste processes can themselves become tourism products.