Adapting and Applying the Regenerative Lens Conceptual Framework to Rural Tourism: Diagnosis and Prospective Pathways in the Sierra del Rincón Biosphere Reserve (Spain)

Regeneration is increasingly emerging as a guiding paradigm for socio-ecological challenges, urging tourism research beyond conventional sustainability toward systemic, transformative perspectives. This study examines how the Regenerative Lens proposed by Buckton et al., combined with the Three Horizons framework, can be operationalized to diagnose tourism dynamics and identify regenerative pathways in the Sierra del Rincón Biosphere Reserve (Madrid, Spain). Using a participatory action research design, data were generated through 12 group sessions, 23 in-depth interviews, participant observation, an open online survey, and engagement in local tourism planning. The analysis first structured local narratives into present challenges, desired futures, and transition pathways, then read them through five regenerative qualities: ecological worldview, mutuality, diversity, agency, and reflexivity. All five are present, but unevenly. Diversity is a consolidated asset; reflexivity and ecological worldview are emerging yet largely discursive; and mutuality and agency are the weakest links, constrained by a governance deficit across the reserve’s six municipalities. In rural destinations rich in ecological and cultural capital, the decisive constraint on regeneration is thus relational, not material. The study also demonstrates the value of combining participatory foresight with the Regenerative Lens to examine tourism as a subsystem of wider territorial transformation.