Regenerative Tourism Model in Ljubljana: Preserving Heritage and Empowering Communities

17 September 2025

Regenerative Tourism Model in Ljubljana: Preserving Heritage and Empowering Communities

How can a DMO preserve cultural heritage, empower artisans, and integrate tourism while building community resilience? Ljubljana demonstrates.

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Cultural Heritage
Innovation

Destination Sustainability can be an intense and valuable pursuit, especially when it achieves multiple ends. Holistic regeneration starts with strategy, pre-planning, and clear action.

A regenerative tourism model in Ljubljana is redefining how destinations can align visitor experiences with long-term community value. By embedding cultural preservation into product design, Ljubljana Tourism has created a programme of handicraft workshops that not only revive threatened cultural traditions but also empower artisans, diversify local economies, and showcase Slovenia’s identity. This case study offers DMOs a replicable framework for regenerative destination development through the lens of cultural heritage.

Explore the Project

From Craft Preservation to Destination Strategy

Launched in 2022, the Creative Handicraft Workshops connect visitors with Ljubljana’s last umbrella maker, its only goldsmith-silversmith, a master printer, a potter, and a weaver. What makes this initiative remarkable is not the crafts alone, but how Ljubljana Tourism positioned the project as part of a wider regenerative tourism model.

For DMOs, this represents a shift: from marketing attractions to designing products like tour experiences that carry legacy value. By decentralising activity away from tourist hotspots and into artisan workshops, the city protects heritage while dispersing visitor flows and revenues across the community.

Tangible Impacts for People and Place

The regenerative tourism model in Ljubljana has already shown measurable outcomes:

194 participants joined 106 workshops in fewer than two years, with attendance up 25% in 2024.
National press and TV coverage raised awareness of intangible heritage across Slovenia.
Revenue stays in the local economy, sustaining artisans and micro-enterprises that might otherwise disappear.
Intergenerational transfer of skills ensures traditions like weaving and umbrella-making continue to be practised, rather than falling into disuse due to lack of economic viability.

More than mere visitor experiences, these are structural interventions that support local identity, economy, and resilience.

Why This Matters for DMOs

The Ljubljana case demonstrates that a DMO can:

Design for legacy by embedding cultural preservation at the planning stage.
Empower community through revenue models that directly support artisans.
Differentiate a destination by showcasing authentic, place-based heritage.
Foster resilience by diversifying local economies and protecting intangible culture.

This is a blueprint for organisations seeking to balance economic growth with cultural integrity.

A Regenerative Tourism Model in Action

The workshops exemplify regenerative tourism in three dimensions:

Social: strengthening community identity and raising heritage awareness.
Economic: empowering micro-enterprises and retaining value at a local level.
Cultural: preserving endangered crafts by passing skills on to new generations.

For DMOs, the key takeaway is that intention and collaboration drive positive results. Ljubljana Tourism partnered with artisans, the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, and students in a sustainable innovation programme, ensuring the project had authenticity and fresh vision.

This Ljubljana regenerative tourism model proves that when DMOs embed cultural preservation, stakeholder collaboration, and legacy thinking into product design, tourism becomes a force for renewal. Rather than extracting value, destinations can leave places better than they found them. For DMOs worldwide, Ljubljana offers a replicable path: turning heritage into a living, resilient resource that benefits communities long after visitors have gone home.

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