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.

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.

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.

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.

Despite the geometric expansion of tourism knowledge, some areas have remained stubbornly underdeveloped and a full or comprehensive consideration of the philosophical issues of tourism represents one such significant knowledge gap. A key aim of this book therefore is to provide an initial mapping of, and fresh insights into this territory. In doing so it discusses key philosophical questions in the field such as What is tourism? Who is a tourist? What is wisdom? What is it to know something? What is the nature of reality? Why are some destinations considered beautiful? Why is tourism desirable? What is good and bad tourism? What are desirable ends? These and similar topics are addressed this book under the headings of truth, beauty and virtue.

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.

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.