Last year, I helped develop an Explorers Club expedition to the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve in San Andres, Colombia.
Maria Jose Abuabara recently served as executive director of tourism for ProColombia in the U.S. She currently is on the board of Daniels Philanthropies and focuses on applying science-informed, systems-based approaches to decision making that connect environmental stewardship, governance and long-term economic value.
During the trip, researchers used environmental RNA and DNA sampling to generate real-time ecological insights, with the goal of identifying where tourism activity could safely occur and where environmental recovery should take priority.
The significance of the expedition was not just the science, but the operational shift it points toward: using early environmental signals to guide tourism decisions before damage happens.
Tourism, conservation and science rarely operate using the same timelines or datasets, despite being dependent on the same destinations. Even though tourism is one of the world's largest economic sectors, it still relies heavily on lagging indicators, such as arrivals, occupancy and visitor spending. These metrics describe impact only after a season has ended and environmental pressure has accumulated.
Other industries use more forward-looking systems; finance continuously prices risk through data, public health relies on surveillance and early-warning systems and technology invests heavily in research and development. Tourism has generally lacked equivalent tools.
As destinations confront overtourism, climate volatility and community resistance, the opportunity is clear: Better and earlier data can help governments and businesses protect the long-term economic value of destinations.
Traditional tourism management tools (zoning, visitor caps, permits and seasonal dispersion) remain useful, but they are often applied with incomplete information. A reef may appear healthy until it suddenly collapses. A trail may seem stable until erosion creates safety risks. A community may appear to absorb tourism growth until housing affordability breaks down.
Regenerative tourism and the scientific method
Emerging scientific methods offer the ability to identify early signs of stress. Environmental DNA and RNA sampling can detect organisms and biodiversity patterns through genetic traces left in water, allowing scientists to monitor how ecosystems change across locations and over time. While these tools were developed for conservation science, they also have important tourism applications. They can help identify areas resilient enough for visitation and ones where tourism activity should stop or may need redesign.
The point is not that every destination needs genetic sampling tomorrow, but that tourism is entering an era in which credibility and competitiveness will increasingly depend on measurable stewardship. Travelers, regulators and investors are becoming less interested in broad sustainability claims and more interested in evidence.
This is particularly important as regenerative tourism gains traction. If a destination claims to restore ecosystems or strengthen community resilience, stakeholders increasingly ask how that's measured and who validates it. Without evidence, regeneration risks becoming a marketing term rather than a management framework.
Scientific and exploration-based tourism can help fill this gap by generating reliable, place-based data that informs stewardship decisions. It can create what might be called an "optimal operational picture" for destinations by establishing baseline information like ecosystem conditions, risk registers and field observations that can be monitored over time.
It can also shorten the feedback loop between tourism and stewardship. Tourism planning often works on annual or multiyear cycles, while climate events, biodiversity shifts and visitor surges do not. Exploration-based approaches can support more adaptive management: monitor, learn, adjust and repeat.
In some cases, these models can also create high-value visitor experiences centered on learning, contribution and conservation, provided they are designed ethically and with local oversight.
Ultimately, the value of this approach lies less in any single technology than in the broader shift toward evidence-based decision-making. Tourism does not need to become a scientific enterprise. But if destinations are to preserve their long-term economic value, decisions must increasingly be guided by measurable environmental realities rather than visible damage after it is too late.
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