The Ethics Of Tourism

There are increasingly strident calls from many sectors of society for the tourism industry, the world’s largest industry, to adopt a more ethical approach to the way it does business. In particular there has been an emphasis placed on the need for a more ethical approach to the way the tourism industry interacts with consumers, the environment, with indigenous peoples, those in poverty, and those in destinations suffering human rights abuses. This book introduces students to the important topic of tourism ethics and illustrates how ethical principles and theory can be applied to address contemporary tourism industry issues. A critical role of the book is to highlight the ethical challenges in the tourism industry and to situate tourism ethics within wider contemporary discussions of ethics in general. Integrating theory and practice the book analyses a broad range of topical and relevant tourism ethical issues from the urgent ‘big-picture’ problems facing the industry as a whole (e.g. air travel and global warming) to more micro-scale everyday issues that may face individual tourism operators, or indeed, individual tourists. The book applies relevant ethical frameworks to each issue, addressing a range of ethical approaches to provide the reader with a firm grounding of applied ethics, from first principles. International case studies with reflective questions at the end are integrated throughout to provide readers with valuable insight into real world ethical dilemmas, encouraging critical analysis of tourism ethical issues as well as ethically determined decisions. Discussion questions and annotated further reading are included to aid further understanding. The Ethics of Tourism: Critical and Applied Perspectives is essential reading for all Tourism students globally.

Drawing upon a variety of important philosophical traditions, this book develops an original perspective on the relations between ethical, economic and aesthetic values in a tourism context. It considers the ethical/political issues arising in many areas of tourism development, including: the profound cultural and environmental impacts on tourist destinations the reciprocity (or lack of) in host-guest relations the (un)fair distribution of benefits and revenues the moral implications of issues such as sex tourism, staged authenticity and travel to oppressive regimes. The book concludes with a detailed investigation of the potential and pitfalls of ecotourism, sustainable tourism and community-based tourism, as examples of what is sometimes termed 'ethical tourism.' Until now, the ethical issues that surround tourism development have received little academic attention. Explaining philosophical arguments without the use of excessive jargon, this fascinating book interweaves theory and practice, aided by the use of text boxes to explain key terms in ethics, politics, and tourism development, and drawing on contemporary case studies from South Africa, Mexico, Zambia, Honduras, Ethiopia and Madagascar.

This is the first book to look at justice and ethics in tourism in one volume, bringing theoretical perspectives into conversation with tourism, development and the environment. The book explores some key ethical perspectives and approaches to justice, including building capabilities, distributive justice, recognition, representation, and democracy. Human rights, integral in the context of tourism, are discussed throughout. Space is also given to structurally embedded injustices (including those related to historical racism and colonialism), responsibility toward justice, justice within and beyond borders, and justice in the context of sustainability, governance, policy, and planning. A variety of international case studies contributed by researchers and experts from around the globe illustrate these concepts and facilitate understanding and practical application. Comprehensive and accessible, this is essential reading for students and researchers in tourism studies and will be of interest to students of geography, development studies, business and hospitality management, cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, urban planning, heritage conservation, international relations and environmental studies. The range of insights offered make this valuable reading for planners, policymakers, business managers and civil society organizations as well.

Tourism Ethics applies moral concepts and issues to some of the most vexing tourism dilemmas of the day, through foundational research from many disciplines including biology, psychology, anthropology, geography and philosophy. Areas of emphasis include sex tourism, all-inclusives, ecotourism, justice, rights, deontology and teleology.

"This is quintessential MacCannell. It is quirky, brilliant, profound, and thought provoking. There are new insights on almost every page. A great read." —Edward Bruner, author of Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel "This is an extraordinary, engaging, and provocative work by one of the distinctive leaders in what has become a lively intellectual field. It also speaks to much broader questions about culture, economy, social life, and experience than the touristic – this is powerful social theory in transit." —Don Brenneis, co-editor of Law and Empire in the Pacific “The Ethics of Sightseeing is vintage MacCannell. It draws together topics—some of which have already appeared as separate papers—in an analytical whole in the same way he did in his original 1976 book The Tourist. And like The Tourist, this book is full of brilliant insights drawn from personal experiences, anecdotes, and a wide knowledge of the humanistic and social science literature. It is eye-opening and pushes the boundaries of knowledge and disciplines. It will go well beyond academic and classroom audiences in providing a new twist to cultural studies interpretations of modern society.” —Nelson Graburn, co-editor of Multiculturalism in the New Japan

Medical and health tourism is a significant area of growth in the export of medical, health and tourism services. Although spas and improved well-being have long been part of the tourist experience, health tourism now includes travel for medical purposes ranging from cosmetic and dental surgery through to transplants and infertility treatment. Many countries including China, Cuba, Hungary, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore actively promote and compete for the medical tourist dollar, while many developed countries also provide niche private services. However, the field of medical tourism is increasingly being subject to scrutiny and debate, particularly as a result of concerns over regulatory, ethical and wider health issues. Drawing on a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives, this book is one of the first to critically address the substantial political, philosophical and ethical issues that arise out of the transnational practices of medical tourism. Through a series of chapters the book engages with key issues such as the role of regulatory and policy structures in influencing medical and health tourism related mobilities. These issues are investigated by considering range of developing and developed countries, medical systems and health economic perspectives. The book adopts a multi-layered perspective to not only investigate the business and marketing practices of medical and health tourism but places these within a broader framework of contemporary globalisation, policy and practice. By doing so it opens up debate of the ethical space in which medical and health tourism operates as well as reinforce the wide ranging perspectives that exist on the subject in both the public and academic imagination. This significant contribution will be of interest to students, academics in tourism and medical policy, trade and economic development fields.

Drawing upon a variety of important philosophical traditions, this book develops an original perspective on the relations between ethical, economic and aesthetic values in a tourism context. It considers the ethical/political issues arising in many areas of tourism development, including: the profound cultural and environmental impacts on tourist destinations the reciprocity (or lack of) in host-guest relations the (un)fair distribution of benefits and revenues the moral implications of issues such as sex tourism, staged authenticity and travel to oppressive regimes. The book concludes with a detailed investigation of the potential and pitfalls of ecotourism, sustainable tourism and community-based tourism, as examples of what is sometimes termed 'ethical tourism.' Until now, the ethical issues that surround tourism development have received little academic attention. Explaining philosophical arguments without the use of excessive jargon, this fascinating book interweaves theory and practice, aided by the use of text boxes to explain key terms in ethics, politics, and tourism development, and drawing on contemporary case studies from South Africa, Mexico, Zambia, Honduras, Ethiopia and Madagascar.

Arguing for a closer relationship between history and tourism studies, this book explores the relationships between tourism, representations, environments and identities in settings ranging from the Roman Empire to the twentieth century, and from Frinton to the 'Far East'.

With ethics fast becoming a mainstay in tourism studies and the tourism industry in general, this volume provides a timely and intensive look at the theory and practice of codes of ethics in tourism. While the book includes a broad overview of what has been done to date in tourism studies in the area of code development and implementation, it ranges much more widely to incorporate theoretical work from outside the tourism field. This interdisciplinary approach serves two essential purposes. First, it furnishes the study of tourism codes of ethics with a theoretical foundation, which up to the present has been lacking. Second, it affords tourism scholars the opportunity to investigate codes in tourism from a multiplicity of perspectives, with direct relevance to the industry at many levels.