Brief: Hội An’s heritage and its visitor economy depend on the wide ecological and social living systems. Yet climate risk, tourism-driven material pressures and changing local livelihoods are weakening the systems behind the destination. Regeneration asks whether the systems behind the destination are becoming more capable of caring for the place over time, and what must exist locally for that to happen.
A heritage destination is more than the place visitors see
Hội An is often portrayed through lanterns, tiled roofs, yellow facades and a slower rhythm of life. That is the destination’s most visible layer.
Its deeper foundations lie in the Thu Bồn River and the wider river-coastal landscape: floodplains and riverbanks, farms and craft villages, native vegetation and biodiversity, and communities whose knowledge of land, water and the seasons continues to shape everyday life.
This wider landscape belongs inside the heritage story. UNESCO’s description of Hội An places the Ancient Town in its original river and seacoast setting and recognises a living heritage that remains inhabited and practised. It also calls for tourism to stay within the limits of the site, climate risks to enter long-term management, and local living conditions to improve as the destination develops.
Protecting tangible or recognised heritage values while the ecological and social foundations around them weaken would preserve the visible face of heritage while losing some of the conditions that keep it alive.
Tourism growth makes this relationship more urgent. The Viet Nam National Authority of Tourism reported that visitor numbers to Hội An increased from 202,000 in 1999 to 4.43 million in 2024. This growth supports livelihoods, markets and public revenue. It also increases demand for water, food, transport, materials and land, while placing more pressure on waste services, infrastructure and the wider landscape.
Growth can strengthen a place, or draw down what sustains it.
Isolated green actions cannot repair a fragmented system
Many environmental initiatives address one visible problem at a time. A hotel reduces plastic. A neighbourhood separates waste. A school plants trees. A tour includes a local activity. Each action may be worthwhile. Its reach remains limited when the supporting roles and relationships are absent.
Source separation cannot produce recovery when collection, contamination control, processing capacity and reliable end uses do not connect. Flood resilience cannot be reduced to emergency response when riverbanks, floodplain vegetation, farming, land use and water flows are managed separately. Community-based experiences cannot sustain local value when residents have little influence over design, paid roles or long-term stewardship.
The limit appears in the space between activities: who coordinates the actors, who operates the service, who pays, what infrastructure is available, how quality is controlled, and what continues after a pilot ends.
Regeneration changes the measure of progress
Sustainable-tourism standards remain an essential foundation. Businesses and destinations need to reduce resource use and pollution, protect cultural and natural heritage, improve labour practices and manage visitor impacts responsibly.
Regeneration extends the unit of concern. It asks whether tourism and other economic activity are helping a place build the capacity to adapt, renew and care for its living foundations. Bellato, Frantzeskaki and Nygaard (2023) describe regenerative tourism as a place-based approach embedded in interconnected social and ecological systems, with an emphasis on developing the capacities of places, communities and their guests.
Is the visitor economy helping Hội An care for what makes life, heritage and tourism possible?
This question changes what counts as progress. Revenue and visitor numbers still matter, but they cannot show whether soil, water and nutrient cycles are functioning; whether material flows are becoming cleaner; whether biodiversity and local knowledge are being maintained; or whether local people have meaningful, paid and accountable roles in caring for place.
Regeneration must be demonstrated, not declared. A credible claim needs a defined place and period, a baseline or other appropriate evidence, clear attribution, and an honest account of who benefits, who carries risk and what remains uncertain.
For a deeper tourism-sector argument, read Beyond Green Tourism: From Better Businesses to a Healthier Destination.
Why this matters for Hội An now
Climate risk is part of the destination
Flooding is a defining condition of Hội An. A spatial assessment of flood risk in the World Heritage Site found that more than 75 per cent of recorded past floods occurred in areas classified by its model as high or very high risk (Nguyen et al., 2024). Tourism cannot prevent flooding. Destination planning can, however, stop treating rivers, floodplains, farms, vegetation and community preparedness as scenery or as someone else’s responsibility.
Waste begins with design
Tourism also intensifies material flows. A 2026 UNDP baseline assessment found that tourists in its two study destinations, Đà Nẵng and Ninh Bình, generated 1.7 to three times more plastic waste than residents. This is not a measurement for Hội An. It is a nearby and relevant warning: the destination needs to understand its own material flows and address procurement, packaging, single-use service models, reuse and refill, source separation, organics and the conditions of waste work as connected design questions.
Policy ambition does not operate itself
Hội An has pursued an ecological development direction for more than a decade. In 2011, UNIDO reported that eco-town development formed part of the city’s strategy to 2030, linking cleaner production with tourism, crafts, business development, employment and environmental services. The persistent challenge is the operating layer between ambition and daily practice: responsible organisations, skilled people, infrastructure, finance, standards, incentives, data and partnerships that allow a service to function and improve over time.
From direction to operating practice
For Green Youth Collective (GYC), regeneration is a direction for design and a discipline for learning. The practical task is to reconnect flows and responsibilities that have become fragmented, then test whether the new arrangements work under real local conditions.
Green Youth Collective serves as the place-based ecosystem, system steward, community backbone and long-term convener. Technical and intermediary work at destination level sit with REED; licensed travel and hospitality with REwild Vietnam; reuse and refill with the independent partner Refillables Đong Đầy; and defined roles with local practitioners, businesses, public actors and other partners. Regeneration depends on these responsibilities being explicit and coordinated rather than collapsed.
This work is organised through five connected Working Models:
- Circular Tourism & Zero Waste redesigns material flows, services and responsibility.
- Floodplain Agro-ecosystem Restoration reconnects ecological processes, working landscapes and long-term stewardship.
- Closed-loop Farming & Agroecology connects biological resources with soil, food system and resilience building for land and people.
- Community Schools for Regeneration builds the practical capability and agency needed to operate and improve local systems.
- Regenerative Tourism connects learning, visitor experiences, finance and long-term relationships back to work already rooted in place.
Start with the challenge you are trying to address
Destination leaders and development partners: Explore the Working Models and discuss which local operating capacity a policy, programme or investment needs to strengthen. Explore the Working Models
Tourism and hospitality businesses: Start with Circular Tourism & Zero Waste and the operating role of Hội An Eco Hub. Explore Hội An Eco Hub
Schools, universities and researchers: Explore Community Schools, the Insights collection and opportunities for place-based learning or evidence partnerships.
DMCs, travel partners and visitors: Explore Regenerative Tourism and REwild Farm to understand how field-based visitor experiences can support work already rooted in place. Explore REwild Farm