Héctor De Castro

Research & Frameworks

Defining, measuring and verifying regeneration in luxury hospitality.

Each entry states its status plainly — peer-reviewed, working paper, in preparation or institutional — and who authored it. Regenerative hospitality has a growing literature; this work adds to it rather than claiming to originate it.

Sole-authored
Written by Héctor De Castro alone.
Institutional
Developed by the Regenera Luxury team under his direction.
Collaborative
Co-developed with named partners or co-authors.

Publications and research outputs

  1. Working paper · 2026

    Defining Regenerative Luxury: Principles, Operational Framework, KPI Architecture and Certification Model for the Transformation of the Luxury and Ultra-Luxury Boutique Hotel Segment

    Proposes a formal operational definition of regenerative luxury — hospitality that actively restores ecological, social and cultural systems rather than only reducing harm, with external verification, continuous measurement and long-term accountability — together with the operating framework, indicator architecture and certification model needed to apply it.

    How to citeDe Castro, H. (2026). Defining Regenerative Luxury: Principles, Operational Framework, KPI Architecture and Certification Model for the Transformation of the Luxury and Ultra-Luxury Boutique Hotel Segment [Working paper]. Universidad Anáhuac Cancún; Regenera Luxury. https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.15449.07529

    ResearchGate record of the preprint “Defining Regenerative Luxury”: preprint, file available, July 2026, DOI 10.13140/RG.2.2.15449.07529, licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, author Héctor De Castro
    The preprint’s record on ResearchGate. View on ResearchGate
    First page of the working paper “Defining Regenerative Luxury” by Héctor De Castro, July 2026, showing the title, author affiliations and the start of the abstract
    First page of the working paper. Read the full paper
    Status
    Preprint (working paper), not peer-reviewed
    Authorship
    Sole-authored
    Published
    12 July 2026
    DOI
    10.13140/RG.2.2.15449.07529
    Licence
    CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
    Read
    ResearchGate · Academia.edu

  2. Manuscript in preparation

    Regeneration-washing in luxury and ultra-luxury boutique hospitality

    Proposes a bounded scholarly definition of regeneration-washing, a typology of the ways regenerative claims fail to be substantiated, a set of empirically testable propositions and a verification ladder grounded in ISO standards. The framework is applied reflexively to Regenera Luxury’s own certification scheme, with the author’s interests disclosed.

    Status
    Being prepared for peer-reviewed submission
    Authorship
    Sole-authored
    Read
    Not yet available

  3. Foundational documents · 2026

    World Regenerative Tourism Day — foundational documents

    The founding texts of an annual observance on 23 May: a Founding Declaration, a Global Manifesto, a Founder Statement and an Official Adherence Instrument through which institutions, destinations, hotels, retreats and NGOs can join. Each is deposited openly on Zenodo so that every version remains citable and traceable. Version 2.0 supersedes the bilingual version 1.1 of July 2026.

    Status
    Published, version 2.0
    Published
    29 September 2026
    Authorship
    Sole author; copyright Regenera Luxury LLC
    Licence
    CC BY-ND 4.0 (text only; names and marks reserved)
    Earlier version
    Founding Declaration v1.1, 10.5281/zenodo.21328497
    Initiative
    World Regenerative Tourism Day

  4. Doctoral research · in progress

    Two doctoral programmes

    1. Doctorate 1 · Universidad Anáhuac CancúnInternational Tourism — research on regenerative luxury in hotels
    2. Doctorate 2 · Universidad Anáhuac México NorteMarketing & Communication — research on neuromarketing applied to eco-luxury hotels
    Status
    Doctoral candidate (both)
    Authorship
    Sole-authored, supervised

Institutional frameworks

These are developed and maintained by the Regenera Luxury team under Héctor’s direction as Founder & President. They are institutional work, not personal publications, and their authoritative versions live on Regenera Luxury’s platform.

The RL StandardCertification criteria and levels for regenerative luxury hotels and retreats.Institutional · regenera.luxury RLP — Regenerative Luxury PlatformThe management platform through which hotels assess, plan and improve their regenerative performance.Institutional · regenera.luxury RL Intelligence™A performance platform that turns regenerative indicators into management information.Institutional · regenera.luxury The official definitionRegenera Luxury’s institutional statement of what regenerative luxury means.Institutional · based on De Castro (2026)

Research collaboration

Héctor’s aim is to move this work from working papers towards peer-reviewed, co-authored research with hospitality schools and universities — particularly on verification, place-specific indicators and the economics of long-term value. Proposals for joint papers, datasets or doctoral supervision are welcome.

Propose a collaboration
ORCID
0009-0000-9613-0181
ResearchGate
Defining Regenerative Luxury (preprint)
Academia.edu
HectorDeCastro1
Zenodo
Four records, World Regenerative Tourism Day (2026)
Affiliations
Regenera Luxury LLC (Newark, Delaware, USA); Luxury Sustainable Hotels AC (Playa del Carmen, Mexico); Universidad Anáhuac Cancún