MEET THE HIVE

MEMBERS

We are a community of passionate professionals who wish to:

This initiative was born in response to a Tourism system and structures that fuel the rise of a global 1% and simultaneously drive us toward climate breakdown, social and ecological collapse. We believe that a transformation in tourism that supports the Regeneration of communities and place is needed.

Inspire, enable and empower the travel, tourism and hospitality sector to move from an extractive to a generative mode of operation that improves the well-being of all.

Nurture the capability of people and places to apply Nature’s design principles so that people and places can thrive and evolve.

Support one another in a community of practice that deepens our own understanding and experience of those principles at work.

ANNA POLLOCK

Anna Pollock, Founder of Conscious Travel, has 45 years of experience in tourism as an independent consultant, strategist, international speaker and change agent. Recipient of The Visionary of the Year Award from the Canadian tourism industry, Anna has undertaken seminal work in many aspects of tourism notably in education, sustainability and technology.

During the 1990s Anna established herself as a thought leader on the strategic implications of the Internet; created the first internet-based tourism strategy for Scotland and co-developed one of the first multi-purpose destination management systems.

Her strength is her ability to see the whole “big picture,” ask difficult questions and help others make sense of their rapidly and dramatically changing world. Her passion now is to help hosts and destinations flourish through a period of turbulent change and uncertainty in which many traditional business models are being disrupted. Over the past few years, she has focussed on investigating emergent, alternative models for the tourism sector that enable it to shift from extraction to regeneration and that generate higher yields with less impact.

CARLOS BRICENO

Carlos was born in Southern City in Chile, coming from a combined mixture of German and Chilean ancestors. In his path of travel, he studied on different continents, lived in many countries and places, and stayed with several communities.

He has dedicated his journey to exploring, researching, designing, developing, implementing and sharing the best and deepest understanding he has found in the way related to Living Organizations and Regenerative Tourism.

Carlos has had the fortune and honour to sit and learn from many ancestral/indigenous cultures, collaborate with relevant universities, design and develop community-building spaces on many clusters and destinations around the American Continent.

His passion is facilitating spaces of innovation and creative design applied to organizational Spheres in Tourism to unleash collaborative potential, form a wholeness thinking understanding, and harvest new ways on how purpose mobility (tourism) allows us to coexist in balance with life itself. Carlos is the Co-founder of the Global Regenerative Tourism Initiative and Camina Regenerative Tourism Consultants.

LORETTA BELLATO

Loretta is undertaking PhD studies at the Swinburne University of Technology, examining regenerative tourism approaches to urban development. She lectures undergraduate tourism and hospitality students taking subjects related to sustainability and tourism management. She is an active member of the Regenesis Group Practitioner Co-learning Network, which is designed to create the “critical conditions” for sustaining a developmental path for regenerative development.

Whilst working as an advisor to a local NGO in Cambodia, she became interested in the promise of tourism in alleviating poverty and overcoming social inequalities. Throughout her Master's studies in sustainable tourism at Monash University, she realised that sustainable tourism was unlikely to meet its goals and that other approaches needed consideration. She identified the concept of regenerative tourism in her Master's studies research as a promising approach to tourism.

Upon returning to Australia, Loretta began transitioning towards tourism. Enticed by the possibility of using tourism as a vehicle for improving livelihoods, in 2014, with Cambodian colleagues, she jointly founded and operated Krama Sunrise, a social enterprise day tour company based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. From 2018 until she commenced PhD studies, she facilitated trips and coordinated projects at CERES Global, a travel program that promotes sustainability through facilitating engagements between travellers and hosts in a range of countries in Asia – Pacific.

MATT SYKES

Based in Melbourne, Australia, Matt is an emerging leader in the global regen movement. Through his consultancy, he collaborates with businesses and organisations looking to shift beyond sustainability (harm minimisation) to create diverse net benefits for places.

Grounded by an education that combines experiences with First Nations Elders as well as western academic institutions, Matt is excited by the opportunity to support Australia’s repositioning as a regenerative economy.

Established working relationships with industry pioneers like the Tasmanian Walking Company, Wukalina Walk and Peninsula Hot Springs, allows him to understand the practicalities of tourism operation as well as the significant scope for strategic industry development. Current projects include work on the Swimmable Birrarung / Yarra River research project and Regenerative tourism PhD – with Loretta Bellato, Swinburne University.

SONIA TERUEL

Sonia was born in Spain, but her heart is also in the UK (where she now resides) and Mexico, her home for eight years. After completing a Degree in Tourism Management in England and spending many years working in the mass tourism industry in Spain, she was finally able to dedicate her life to what she truly loved in Mexico: community-based tourism, connecting with rural and indigenous communities in several parts of the country.

Her interest in regeneration was born out of the frustration of not seeing the positive impact on these communities that sustainability promised and getting tired of applying standardised solutions that did not adapt to the nature of the place and the locals’ needs. So, after doing a Master's in Sustainable Tourism Management in Costa Rica, Sonia dove into regeneration applied to tourism and wrote a thesis about it because Ishe felt the call to spread the word about this paradigm in Iberoamerica and around the world.

She is the founder of The RegenLab for Travel, where she helps other organisations and entrepreneurs on their path towards regeneration in the tourism sector.

MARTIN ARANEDA

Martin is passionate about the possibility of working with groups and communities that want to make their time and lives valuable. He is constantly searching for tools that enhance his ability to generate change and processes in organizations, companies, networks and groups that want to innovate in how to relate to people, the economy and nature.

He provides tools so that entrepreneurs and companies can work and deepen in innovation, sustainability, communication, marketing and collaboration, thus reaching their maximum potential.

Martin is also the Co-founder of the Global Regenerative Tourism Initiative and Camina Regenerative Tourism Consultants.

ELKE DENS

Elke Dens is a rewarded marketer and one of the driving forces to lead VisitFlanders into ‘Travel to tomorrow’, a vision of tourism that is based on regeneration. As chairwoman of the Marketing Group of The European Travel Commission, Elke has been aligning the marketing directors from 28 countries in Europe around one and the same brand and strategy with a focus on long-term sustainable added value.

After COVID’19, she decided to take a few years of leave from the government and help other destinations as an independent freelance expert. She has been assigned as an expert on the COVID’19 tourism recovery program of the United Nations.

She speaks at international fora and helps DMOs in their transition. She also does a lot of voluntary work, like helping FairBnB to launch in Europe. Last and not least, she is a proud member of the board of two international NGOs - The Travel Foundation and the Impact Travel Alliance.