Centre for Tourism Policy Studies
Ethics, responsibility and sustainable consumption in tourism, leisure and hospitality
Theme Leader: Dr Clare Weeden
Tourism is a highly successful social phenomenon, with more than 700 million people travelling every year, generating more than 10% of global GDP and providing more than 200 million jobs around the world. While such unparalleled growth undoubtedly creates a considerable array of holiday options for the international tourist and offers extensive opportunity for income and investment to many key actors, it also attracts a great deal of condemnation.
Not only is the tourism industry held responsible for perpetuating social inequality and exploiting the planet’s natural and human resources, but it is also criticised for its business practices, which are often perceived as both unethical and unsustainable. In response to these and similar concerns, and at the same time reflective of wider lifestyle trends, calls have been made for a more ethical and responsible approach to tourism by all sectors of the industry. Indeed, many tour operators, especially those catering to the specialist niche market, offer responsible holidays supported by cooperative and reciprocal supply chain relationships. Likewise, there exist a range of hospitality and leisure businesses that proactively adopt cost-efficient environmental management systems as their contribution towards developing a sustainable industry. Even tourists have become more aware of the need to take responsibility for the impact of their travels, although it remains a constant challenge to encourage greater numbers of them to change their behaviour as a result of this knowledge.
In summary, the production and consumption of tourism involves a wide range of ethical dilemmas, which are often inter-dependent and highly complex. All of the stakeholders involved in tourism are thus forced to navigate their way through this challenging landscape, a task that many see as daunting and may ultimately prove off-putting. In order to contribute to a greater understanding of these issues, and to help the tourism industry develop a practical set of sustainable business solutions, research is essential, whether from a tourist, tour operations, hospitality or leisure perspective.
Ethics, responsibility and sustainable consumption in tourism, leisure and hospitality is a new critical research theme for the School of Service Management, yet the team of researchers involved in this area are fast developing a reputation for their sustained examination of the subject. From early research into the marketing of ethical tour operations, the team have added significantly to the sustainability literature, most particularly with regard to a greater understanding of the responsible tourist, an application of environmental initiatives in the SME hospitality business in the UK and Spain, and an examination of corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy and implementation in European tour operations. Further examples of their work can be seen in the following inter-related areas of research within this theme:
- Ethical consumption in tourism
- Responsible tourist behaviour
- Marketing responsible tourism
- Environmental sustainability in SME hotels in the UK
- CSR in UK tour operations
- Managing ethical issues in the international cruise industry