Enterprise-mediated social value creation through tourist-resident interaction in regenerative tourism experiences: the case of CopenPay

Abstract

Urban tourism increasingly presents socio-environmental challenges, straining relationships between tourists and residents. While regenerative tourism is gaining recognition for its environmental contributions, its potential to support social cohesion especially through positive tourist–resident interactions, remains underexplored. This study examines how tourism enterprises mediate these interactions to advance socially regenerative practices, using four tourism enterprises involved in Copenhagen’s 2024 CopenPay campaign in a revelatory case study. Drawing on practice theory and mediation theory, it proposes a framework for enterprise-mediated social value–creating interaction practices. It identifies four key practice bundles: aligning for commitment, structuring for engagement, curating for encounters, and consolidating for appreciation. Through these practices, social value is co-created between tourists and residents, contributing to community building and conviviality. The study contributes to regenerative tourism literature by foregrounding its social dimension and showing how regenerative experiences unfold in urban contexts; to mediation theory by incorporating more-than-human components such as materials, animals, plants, and natural elements; and to mediation and practice theory by developing a practice-based framework for analysing enterprise-mediated social value–creating interactions. Practically, the findings suggest that regenerative tourism fosters social value when shared goals and opportunities for interaction are supported, and that this can be made more effective through strategic facilitation.