ABSTRACT
In the words above, Brecht strikes to the heart of the dilemma facing ecotourism in many regions of the world today. One cannot help but relate the sentiments of Brecht to Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of needs: simply that people will be moved to satisfy lower-order needs first (those which are physiological, including food, shelter and safety) before upper-level, or psychological, ones (leisure, self-respect and self-actualisation). The implications of Maslow’s model to human behaviour are suggestive of the fact that humans are often caught in a duality between what is universally right and personally satisfying or rewarding. It is perhaps why people continue to practise slash-and-burn agriculture; why governments are reluctant to explore other forms of energy use beyond fossil fuels; and why tourist operators are prone to placing more people on sensitive environments than they are supposed to. There appear to be two main motivations for this action along a broad continuum. At one end of the continuum is the need to survive and support a family, while at the other is the need to prosper economically at all costs. In this chapter ecotourism is discussed in the context of an ethical imperative – an essential and urgent ingredient needed to better conceptualise ecotourism both in theory and practice. This is not just far-fetched idealism, but comes after careful consideration of the foundations of human nature – a topic not at all familiar to tourism scientists. The theory of reciprocal altruism explains why we are both self-interested and cooperative, and the application of this theory to tourism puts into perspective why we are faced with a variety of ethical issues. The chapter also focuses on defining ethics as well as summarising the extent of tourism research and ethics to date.
