From Extraction to Regeneration: Shifting Paradigms in Marine Tourism Practices Across the Coral Triangle
Keywords:
regenerative tourism, marine tourism, Coral Triangle, coral reef conservation, sustainable diving, ecosystem stewardship, IndonesiaAbstract
Marine tourism in the Coral Triangle — the global epicentre of marine biodiversity spanning Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste — has historically operated within an extractiveparadigm: visitor experiences depend on ecosystem services that the same visitor activity progressively degrades. Recent scholarship has called for a regenerative paradigm shift, in which marine tourism actively contributes to ecosystem recovery rather than merely minimizing harm. Empirical evidence on what regenerative marine tourism actually looks like in operational practice remains underdeveloped. This study asks how the regenerative paradigm is currently being articulated and operationalized across the Coral Triangle, and what enabling conditions distinguish documented regenerative practices from extractive or merely sustainable ones. A concurrent mixed-methods design combined deep fieldwork at three Indonesian Coral Triangle sites — Raja Ampat (West Papua), Wakatobi (Southeast Sulawesi), and Komodo (East Nusa Tenggara) — with documentary and remote-interview engagement covering the wider Coral Triangle. Data collection ran from January to February 2026, comprising 31 stakeholder interviews, observation at 18 marine-tourism sites, and analysis of 56 governance, operator, and conservation documents. Findings reveal that regenerative practice is emergent but uneven: documented examples cluster in five practice archetypes, but most operational marine tourism in the region remains within mitigation-focused or unmodified extractive paradigms. The study introduces the Regenerative Marine Tourism Continuum (RMTC), distinguishing five paradigm positions and the structural enablers that support movement toward regeneration. Implications are drawn for SDGs 14, 8, 12, and 17.
Keywords: regenerative tourism; marine tourism; Coral Triangle; coral reef conservation; sustainable diving; ecosystem stewardship; Indonesia
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