Most tourists travel to ‘get away from it all’, to relax in new surroundings, untroubled by the constrictions and irritations that characterize everyday modern life. Ironically, in doing so they contribute to the growth of what is generally
regarded as the world’s largest industry, one that has massive impacts on people’s lives, cultures and environment. Given these impacts it is surprising that the ethical issues that surround tourism development have received little academic
attention. The Ethics of Tourism Development draws upon a variety of ethical traditions
to develop an original perspective on the relations between ethical, economic and aesthetic values in the context of modern tourism. It considers the ethical/political issues arising in many areas of tourism development including the reciprocity
(or lack of it) in ‘host’–‘guest’ relations, the (un)fair distribution of benefits and revenues, and the moral implications of issues like sex-tourism, ‘staged authenticity’ and travel to countries with oppressive regimes. The book concludes with a detailed investigation of the potential and pitfalls of eco-tourism, sustainable tourism and ‘community-based tourism’ as examples of what is sometimes termed
‘ethical tourism’. The authors explain ethical issues without the use of excessive jargon and
through the extensive use of contemporary case studies in tourism development from Europe, Zimbabwe and Belize among others. In this way the book seeks to account for the manner in which tourism, often all too uncritically, exports the
values and presuppositions associated with its own cultural origins enabling readers to compare and contrast a variety of frameworks for thinking through these complex and often contentious issues. |