Regenerative Tourism in Practice – Buurthotel

About this column:

What does regenerative tourism really look like, beyond the theory and buzzwords? In this series, Anouschka Trauschke, Transition Manager for Regenerative Tourism at Inholland University of Applied Sciences, shares her experiences from the field. Through the SPRONG project Hospitable Transitions, she explores, together with pioneers, professionals, and communities, how tourism can contribute to positive social and ecological change in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region.

In her columns, Anouschka takes you along on her encounters with frontrunners, her conversations with experts, and her reflections on what regeneration means for places, people, and systems. No blueprints or quick fixes—just observations, questions, and insights from a transition that is very much in motion.

This series is intended as both inspiration and invitation: to look at tourism differently, to highlight existing initiatives, and to collaboratively build new stories about hospitality, area development, and care for people and nature.

Buurthotel – Amsterdam (and now also Rotterdam)

Buurthotel connects hotels with their immediate surroundings by making hotels accessible to local residents and developing new forms of encounter and collaboration together with local partners.

What happens here in practice?
Buurthotel lets residents discover what hotels in their own neighbourhood have to offer. Through the platform, local residents find activities, workshops, neighbourhood discounts, and overnight stays at participating hotels. Hotels open their doors to the neighbourhood and work together with local entrepreneurs, artists, and community initiatives to develop programming that connects with the neighbourhood. During initiatives such as Open Hotel Week, hotel staff share their craft and residents get a behind-the-scenes look. In this way, hotels become not only a place for temporary guests, but also a meeting place for the local community.

What makes this regenerative?

• Existing hotels are actively connected to their immediate surroundings and take on a societal role alongside their tourism function.
• The existing space, knowledge, and hospitality of hotels are put to use for local residents and community initiatives, meaning existing facilities are deployed in a different way.
• The initiative attempts to shift the relationship between tourism and residents from a situation of opposing interests to a model in which visitors, hotels, and residents jointly create value.

Which regenerative elements can you see here?
Co-creation & shared process
Buurthotel develops activities together with hotels, residents, entrepreneurs, and community organisations. Hotels are also encouraged to think from residents’ needs, among other things through “Think like a local” sessions.

Long-term stewardship
Buurthotel does not present itself as a one-off campaign but builds lasting relationships between hotels, residents, and municipalities. To this end, the initiative develops recurring programming throughout the year.

Local stories & cultural continuity
Residents get to know the people, stories, and expertise behind the hotels in their own neighbourhood. At the same time, hotels offer space to local makers, artists, and neighbourhood initiatives.

What changes as a result in this place?
Hotels become more visible as part of the neighbourhood rather than as closed buildings for visitors. Residents gain access to facilities and activities that were previously often outside their field of view. At the same time, new collaborations emerge between hotels, local entrepreneurs, and community organisations, which can strengthen social connection with the neighbourhood.

Where is there still tension, friction, or an ongoing search?
Buurthotel is still in an early development phase. The initiative still needs to show how structurally the involvement of residents and hotels can be sustained, and what effects this will have in the longer term on liveability and the relationship between tourism and the city. In addition, finding a balance between the commercial interests of hotels and their societal role remains an ongoing search. Buurthotel has managed to generate attention around an appealing idea, but now needs to prove whether hotels can genuinely contribute something structural to their neighbourhood.

What does this initiative show about regenerative tourism?
Buurthotel has a different setup than the other pioneers: it works from within existing tourism infrastructure and tries to strengthen the relationships between residents, visitors, and entrepreneurs from there.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Buurthotel is its chosen development strategy. The initiative doesn’t seem to start directly with deep co-creation.
The sequence instead appears to be: generate attention, spark curiosity, bring residents and hotels into contact with each other, let relationships form, and only then collaborate and deepen.
This is notable because many regenerative initiatives place the emphasis mainly on deepening relationships from the outset, whereas here momentum seems to be needed first before deeper relationships can develop.

This initiative shows that regenerative tourism can begin by reconnecting existing places with the community of which they are part.