Algarve Tech Hub Summit - Lagos - November 7, 2025
The Human Algorithm
The ALGARVE TECH HUB SUMMIT is an event that is jointly organised by various bodies from the innovation ecosystem. The aim is to promote innovation, technology and business in the Algarve and to position the region as a competitive global technology hub capable of attracting companies, institutions and individuals.
Moderated by Antónia Correia (KIPT CoLAB), this panel brings together Brian McClafferty (Where is Kevin), João Ministro (Proactivetur), and Alicia M. Rodriguez (Restorative Retreats) to explore how tourism can evolve through a balance of technology, sustainability, and human well-being. The discussion highlights how innovation and mindful practices can coexist to create more authentic, regenerative, and future-ready travel experiences.
See the Panel Discussion Page Here.
Alicia was invited to participate on this panel to discuss how transformative tourism in the Algarve can assist in restoration of our energy and presence. The moderator posed four questions to each panel member. Here are the questions posed to Alicia and her answers. You may also listen to the questions and answers.
#1 — If transformative tourism is the goal, what needs to shift inside us to make it real?
Transformative tourism begins in the body. The state of our nervous system shapes our choices, our relationships, and our health—you can’t fake a dysregulated system. Because we inter-are, the environment also feels our dissonance. The inner shift is from speed to presence: regulate before you relate. Breath, pacing, and time in nature return us to coherence. From there, meaning, empathy, and wiser decisions become possible.
#2 — Many in tourism, from front-line staff to leaders, struggle with digital fatigue and emotional burnout. How can human-centered leadership turn workplaces themselves into spaces of transformation?
Workplaces can be sites of restoration, not depletion. Three moves:
1. Rhythm over hustle. Design shifts and meetings around human ultradian rhythms—90-minute focus blocks with real recovery (sunlight, movement, silence). Allow time for rest, nourishment and connection.
2. Co-regulation as policy. Lead by example. Train leaders to open and close interactions with brief grounding—two breaths, name what’s here, then proceed. Model curiosity, listening and witnessing instead of judging and advocating. Psychological safety rises, creativity expands; conflict drops. Innovative ideas have space and safety to emerge.
3. Nature as infrastructure. Be intentional about our environment. Put nature on the schedule: walking 1:1s, five-minute outdoor resets, staff access to nearby green/blue spaces. Design workplaces with sunlight and airflow. When the nervous system settles, service quality, creativity, and retention follow.
#3 — Is transformative tourism something we can design, or does it only happen when we slow down and allow it?
We can design the conditions for travel with purpose: frictionless logistics, unhurried time, gentle prompts, and proximity to living systems—forest, ocean, night sky. Then we allow: provide slow itineraries, silence without filling it, immersive experiences, invitations rather than instructions. In my retreats, the cliff walks and the pauses do as much if not more than any curriculum. Transformation is an emergent property of a regulated, receptive human in a living landscape.
If I leave you with one idea it’s this: Transformational Tourism has the opportunity to create experiences that regulate our nervous systems that are incoherent and dissonant due to stress and the chaos in our world. The natural beauty of the Algarve recalibrates our bodies and brain generating happiness and wellbeing. Coherence is contagious (literally); so is care.
#4 — One line of code for “The Human Algorithm of Tourism”
Pause. Breathe. Attune (to self and others). Choose (regenerative action). Act (manifest in alignment with meaning).
PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF THE PANEL DISCUSSION
