Managing Ethical Consumption in Tourism

Clare Weeden, Karla Boluk

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9780415716765
• eBook ISBN: 9781317999683
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

Neither the tourism industry nor the tourist has responded convincingly to calls for more responsibility in tourism. Ethical consumption places pressure on travellers to manage a large number of decisions at a time when hedonic motivations threaten to override other priorities. Unsurprisingly, tensions occur and compromises are made. This book offers new insight into the motivations that influence tourists and their decision-making. It explores how consumers navigate the responsible tourism market place and provide a rich understanding of the challenges facing those seeking to encourage travellers to become responsible.

Not only will the book provide an improved interpretation of the complexity of ethical consumption in tourism, but it will also offer a variety of stakeholders a deeper understanding of:

• the key challenges facing stakeholders in the production and consumption of responsible tourism
• how ethical consumers can be influenced to consume ethically
• the gaps in consumer knowledge and how to broaden the appeal for individuals to make more informed ethical decisions
• how tour operators can respond to this emerging market by innovative product development
• how to design informative marketing communications to encourage a greater uptake for responsible holidays
• how destinations can tailor their products to the ethical consumer market
• how destination communities and management organisations can target responsible tourists through the provision of sustainable alternatives to mass-market holiday products.

Written by leading academics from all over the world, this timely and important volume will be valuable reading for ubdergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers and academics interested in Tourism Ethics, Ethical Consumption and the global issue of Sustainability.

1 Introduction

Managing ethical consumption in tourism – compromises and tensions

Clare Weeden and Karla Boluk

Discussions about the negative and widespread impacts of tourism far outweigh those that reflect the various opportunities created for people, culture and environment in the tourism process, and thus provide a rationale for debate about ethics in tourism. Specifically, many commentators have noted the negative consequences associated with the development, management and operational activities of the tourism industry (Ashley et al. 2001; Mowforth and Munt 2003; Higgins-Desbiolles 2010). Other research considers tourism to be highly exploitative (Sánchez Taylor 2010), socially damaging (Tucker and Akama 2009) and notably a ‘justice issue’ (D’Sa 1999: 68). Fewer studies have explored the opportunities associated with tourism development. For example, deliberations in the areas of peace (Ap and Var 1990; Moufakkir and Kelly 2010), poverty alleviation (Spenceley and Goodwin 2007; Muganda et al. 2010; Boluk 2011a; Scheyvens and Russell 2012), transformational tourism (Reisinger 2013) and opportunities to facilitate meaningful and co-transformational interactions (Pritchard et al. 2011), while not entirely overlooked by researchers, have been largely ignored.

In response to existing criticism regarding tourism development, the literature charts a plethora of mitigative approaches, usually presented under the umbrella term ‘alternative tourism’. Such approaches demonstrate (at least on the surface) the simultaneous efforts made by tourism producers and tourism consumers towards sustainability goals. While these alternative ways of conducting and consuming tourism have their critics (see for example, Wheeller 1991; Butcher 2003), they are arguably reflective of what Hartwick (2000: 1179) refers to as an ‘ethical turn’ in society, which increasingly challenges the dominant postmodernist support for mass consumption.

Despite these alternative approaches it appears as though the tourism industry, producers, and tourism consumers, have not responded convincingly to calls for more responsibility in tourism. Correspondingly, Fennell (2006; 2008) argues that ethics in tourism has not been given adequate research attention and thus clearly has the potential for greater investigation. Indeed, when ethics is discussed in a tourism context it often focuses on topical and obvious issues such as sex tourism (see Opperman 1998; Kibicho 2009), the impact of tourism development on the environment (Kavallinis and Pizam 1994; Briassoulis 2000; Butler 2000; Mbaiwa 2003; Amuquandoh 2010), or latterly, debates regarding tourism’s role in climate change. Occasionally, discussions address the social aspects of tourism but these tend to centre on tourist conduct, such as ‘inappropriate dress or behaviour, [the] demonstration effect, and cross-cultural conflict or cultural erosion’ (Scheyvens and Momsen 2008: 31).

In contrast, a great deal of deliberation has centred on ethics in a variety of disciplines outside the tourism field. In fact, nearly a decade ago, Popke (2006: 504) noted the sheer volume of academic journal articles (in the order of 1,500 annually), suggesting that ethical conversations are not just popular in academia but are also taking place in the social domain, and discussed by ‘bankruptcy lawyers, money managers, judges and dentists, and applied to our sporting events, our militaries, and even our space agencies’. However, interest in ethical issues in wider society comes to an almost-abrupt halt when applied to holidays and consumers’ leisure time and activities. Indeed, it appears there is little interest from tourists in being responsible on holiday, as indicated in a survey by the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA), which revealed 41 per cent of UK consumers preferred to relax on holiday instead of thinking about green issues, and 48 per cent of them had no opinion as to whether or not holidays should have a social or environmental rating (ABTA 2010).

Interestingly, titles and associations have appeared to be significant to some tourism consumers, resulting in the removal of the term ‘tourist’ from anything affiliated with the concept of holidaying. Consequently, tourists have been redefined as adventurers, fieldwork assistants, exploraholics, volunteers and travellers, all of whom Birkett (2002: 3) argues are ‘the same people’ doing ‘the same thing’. Yet, such disassociations have the potential to eliminate perceived guilt felt by consumers. The disassociation from mass tourism is also important to some travellers (McCabe 2005), giving rise to distinctive forms of tourism such as backpacker tourism (O’Reilly 2006). Whether this reflects a heightened awareness of the negative consequences associated with (mass) tourism, or an interest in demonstrating that one is ‘ethical’, remains questionable.

The lack of research in the area of ethics and tourism has provided the impetus for this volume. As noted by David Fennell in the Foreword, it is apparent that tourism scholars have avoided engagement with ethical issues in tourism, arguably demonstrating a lack of confidence. Specifically, there is a dearth of research exploring the compromise and tension experienced by consumers in their tourism and travel decision-making. This focus framed a call for papers, submitted by the editors, for the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting held in February 2012, in New York, USA. This call generated interest from scholars around the world and hence facilitated an interactive working session at the AAG, where contributors were challenged to present their papers in five minutes, with an hour of follow-on discussion. The high level of interest and enthusiasm from these scholars led directly to this edited book, and the high quality of the contributing chapters is testament to the energy and commitment of all the people involved.

To many people, ‘ethical debate in tourism’ is something of an oxymoron. The former addresses issues of right and wrong, or ‘inquiry into the nature and grounds of morality, where morality means moral judgements, standards, and rules and conduct’ (Tsalikis and Fritzsche 1989: 696). In contrast, the latter involves mostly selfish desires centring on fun, relaxation and ‘getting away from it all’. Ethical consumption in tourism, often implicit within holidays sold under the banner of eco, responsible, Pro-Poor or Fair Trade, is often unwelcome because it places additional pressure on travellers to make appropriate decisions at a time when hedonic motivations are often prioritised and supersede all others.

Of additional challenge, especially to those supporting the drive for ethical holidays, is the relatively limited availability, and sometimes expensive nature of responsible tourism ‘products’, as well as the extremely complex nature of the various component parts of the holiday experience which consumers find challenging to navigate. For instance, transport, accommodation and attractions often make great claims for sustainable practices, but these are difficult for people to identify, understand or believe (Weeden 2013). Such issues are at the heart of this book, which aims to provide a rich interpretation of the complexity of ethical consumption in tourism, insight into discourses influencing travellers and their decision-making, and offers deep insight into the key challenges facing stakeholders keen to support the production and consumption of responsible tourism.

Managing ethical consumption in tourism

Before introducing the contributions in this edited book it is important to provide a closer examination of the debates and discussions involved in managing ethical consumption in tourism. As noted earlier, the benefits and consequences linked to tourism evoke strong emotion. For instance, despite its enriching benefits, in areas such as infrastructure and service improvement, employment opportunity and wealth creation (Andereck et al. 2005), tourism is acknowledged as potentially exploitative (Sánchez Taylor 2010), and capable of perpetuating inequity and exclusion (Carlisle 2010; Cole and Morgan 2010; Hall 2010). In addition, while tourism is positively embraced by a range of community stakeholders (Nunkoo and Ramkissoon 2010), it is the damaging effects associated with mass tourism that tend to dominate tourism inquiry.¹ For instance, resident attitudes towards increased traffic, crowds, congestion and urban sprawl in towns and cities are popular foci of tourism research in developed countries (see for example, Andereck et al. 2005; Choi and Murray 2010), but its potential to irreversibly damage pristine landscapes around the globe is the most often recalled characteristic of tourism’s environmental impact. In particular, uncontrolled visitor numbers in national parks, unregulated tourism development around sensitive ecosystems, and diversion of water from local food production for tourists’ leisure use (Kline et al. this volume), raise familiar questions over habitat loss, disturbance to animals, and issues of environmental justice (Sasidharan et al. 2002; Amuquandoh 2010; Cole 2013; Holden and Fennell 2013).

Not only is the environment impacted by the production and consumption of tourism. There are also human costs, and many commentators question tourism’s ability to manage itself ethically, especially when it concerns the impact on local communities (Tosun 2002; Andereck et al. 2005), the appropriation of culture and heritage for the purpose of tourism (Kirtsoglou and Theodossopoulos 2004), and the consequences for community cohesion of poor tourism planning and ineffective business practice (Honey and Gilpin 2009). Further debates examine the ethics of representation and commodification of indigenous peoples (Caton, this volume; Saarinen and Niskala 2009), disempowerment of local communities through international investment (Mbaiwa 2003), and prevention of access to farmland and other critical resources as a consequence of conserving wildlife for tourism (Rutten 2002; Snyder and Sulle 2011).

While not claiming to be an exhaustive list of the ethical dilemmas associated with travel and tourism, they provide some explanation as to why tourism is often accused of exacerbating global disparities of wealth and reinforcing structural inequality (Britton 1982; O’Hare and Barrett 1999; Chong 2005; Scheyvens 2007; Brown and Hall 2008). Since there is virtually nowhere on the planet that has not felt the ‘effects of modernity through tourism development’ (Smith and Duffy, 2003: 2), such inequities are problematic for a range of stakeholders, many of whom have called for a more ‘just’ and equitable form of tourism (de Kadt 1979; Krippendorf 1987; Hultsman 1995). In response to such calls, a plethora of ‘alternatives’ have been offered to the market place. These include ‘sustainable tourism’ (Eagles et al. 2002), ‘eco-tourism’ (Fennell 1999), ‘volunteer tourism’ (Wearing 2001, 2004), ‘ethical tourism’ (Tribe 2002; Weeden 2002; Butcher 2003; Fennell 2006), ‘responsible tourism’ (Wheeller 1991; Wright 2006), ‘pro-poor tourism’ (Ashley et al. 2001; Scheyvens 1999, 2002, 2007), and ‘fair trade tourism’ (Kalisch 2001, 2010; Boluk 2011a, 2011b).

While many of these represent a genuine desire to develop and support a tourism that offers beneficial and equitable exchange, critics continue to question their relevance, utility and effectiveness (see Wheeller 1991; Butcher 2003). For example, some commentators dismiss them for being ineffectual solutions to the ‘problem’ of mass tourism, and symptomatic of a New Puritan movement, where an application of ethics to tourism is (cynically) couched in the discourse of virtue and the promise of doing good (Butcher 2003; Lisle 2008). As Lisle notes (2008: 5), ‘not only does ethical tourism solve all the problems caused by mass tourism, it also makes you a better person and the world a better place’. Such debates are not without support (see Mowforth and Munt 2009). However, there is also evidence that an increasing number of stakeholders are acknowledging the need for an ethical approach to travel and tourism. For example, while still a minority in terms of holiday sales, responsible tourism products exist in the portfolio of many multinational tour operators. Similarly, the social and environmental impacts of tourism are becoming more prominent in the minds of tourists, with 47 per cent of UK travellers believing their holidays should directly benefit local people and economies (ABTA 2010).

Ethical turn in society

Concerns over social and trade justice, and debates over responsibility in tourism, have their foundation in wider societal debates. For example, ethical consumption is conceptualised as a set of practices where global solidarity can be (voluntarily or routinely) displayed and enacted, and ‘through which unequal power relations are constituted, reproduced and contested’ (Barnett et al. 2005: 41). Such interpretations rest upon the knowledge that individuals across a globalised world are interconnected through daily consumption habits (Hartwick 2000), and a renewed conception of spatial connections has prompted further debate regarding the ethical issues involved in production, supply and purchase of goods and services (Shaw et al. 2000; Szmigin et al. 2009; Shaw and Riach 2011).

Consumers in the affluent north have long demonstrated an interest in ethical consumption (e.g. Seif 2001; Goodwin and Francis 2003; Harrison et al. 2005; Nicholls and Opal 2005). For example, anxiety over the sustainability of the environment (Carson 1962; Wilkins 1999) has led to increased production of organic foods and ecologically benign goods, an emphasis on buying locally (e.g. within a 30-mile radius), and greater participation in recycling programmes. Further to environmental priorities, people exhibit increasing concern for the treatment of human beings (Peattie 1992) in the Majority World, typically when social issues are addressed in the media. Such attention has also prompted consumer participation in anti-sweat shop campaigns, have persuaded consumers to boycott specific companies and/or support (buycott) companies that are transparent in their business operations.

The development of consumer interest in environmental (Holden, this volume), and human and non-human animal rights in the production and supply of commodities and services has also influenced consumer choice in tourism, typically in discussions of fair trade in tourism (Kalisch 2013), ethical responsibilities of tour operators (Budeanu 2005), or moral selving of volunteer tourists (Boluk and Ranjbar, this volume). Further evidence exists in consumer willingness to boycott holiday organisations, which encouraged Tourism Concern, a UK-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), to encourage a boycott against travelling to Burma in protest against the repressive military junta. Similarly, consumer deman...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: managing ethical consumption in tourism – compromises and tensions
• PART I Debates on ethical consumption in tourism
• PART II Situating the self in ethical consumption
• PART III Helping consumers make ethical decisions
• Index