Regenerative tourism focuses on leaving places better than you found them, supporting local economies, preserving culture, and protecting the environment. How does that translate to street-level tourism? Does the term "regenerative" suffer from the same thing that plagues "sustainability"—where rhetoric is strong and the action remains weak? Travelers regularly rate sustainability as a top five criteria in making travel decisions, but their buying behavior tells a very different story.

Then again, there are huge upsides in rethinking everything about the way we travel, especially now. We look at what's working, what's not, and what's ahead.