Literary Landscapes and Regenerative Tourism: Ecopoetics and the Reconfiguration of the Tourist Gaze

Abstract

This article examines how literary ecopoetics can reframe the tourist gaze in the context of ecological crisis. While regenerative tourism scholarship has emphasised restoration, community-centred governance, and systems thinking, it has paid less attention to the cultural formation of environmental perception. Addressing this gap, the article brings ecocriticism into dialogue with tourism theory to argue that literary texts function as forms of ecological knowledge that shape how landscapes are seen and valued. Focusing on selected works by William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Rabindranath Tagore, and Jibanananda Das, the analysis identifies recurring ecopoetic motifs of return, seasonality, riverine belonging, rural labour, and multispecies relation. These forms of attention challenge the extractive visuality associated with the tourist gaze and suggest alternative modes of encounter grounded in reciprocity, restraint, and dwelling. Reading the Lake District, Santiniketan, and riverine Bengal as literary landscapes, the article demonstrates how ecopoetic perception can illuminate contemporary debates about heritage, environment, and travel. It argues that regenerative tourism requires not only institutional reform but also a transformation in how environments are perceived, positioning ecopoetics as a critical resource for reimagining tourism in more ethical and sustainable terms.