Mindfulness-to-meaning processes in host empowerment through co-creation for responsible tourism

Purpose This study aims to investigate how mindfulness-based facilitation can serve as an empowering process within community-based tourism. Drawing on the mindfulness-to-meaning theory, it explores how mindfulness-oriented activities cultivate awareness, agency and shared responsibility among destination residents. The research highlights how mindful co-creation generates eudaimonic experiences that strengthen residents' intrinsic motivation to act responsibly and collaboratively within their communities. Design/methodology/approach Participatory action research was conducted in Atayal Indigenous communities in Taiwan. Mindfulness-based workshops, reflective dialogues and field observations traced transformations across the mindfulness-to-meaning stages – decentring, attentional broadening, reappraisal and savouring. Thematic analysis revealed how residents reinterpreted guiding and collaboration as mindful co-creation, strengthening empowerment and local agency in responsible tourism. Findings Mindfulness-based training reshaped residents' interpretations of travelling and breathing mindfully in Atayal Forests. Four representations of mindfulness-to-meaning processes emerged: cultivating place reflexivity, fostering dialogue with nature, reappraising guiding as cultural custodianship and nurturing a long-term communal vision. These processes generated eudaimonic meanings that affirmed identity, reinforced empowerment and guided community tourism toward responsible engagement. Originality/value This paper offers the first empirical application of the mindfulness-to-meaning theory to responsible tourism. It develops a process–outcome framework linking mindfulness, meaning-making and empowerment, extending mindfulness-to-meaning theory beyond individual psychology to collective transformation. Conceptually, it introduces mindful facilitation as a mechanism for host empowerment. Practically, it demonstrates how mindfulness-based co-creation fosters awareness and responsibility from within communities, enabling authentic, value-based forms of responsible tourism.