ABSTRACT
In November 2011 the London School of Economics (LSE) in the UK was heavily criticized for a “chapter of failures” in its links with the Gaddafi regime in Libya. A report by former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf noted a series of mistakes and errors of judgement had damaged LSE’s reputation. The LSE’s director, Sir Howard Davies, resigned in March over a £1.5m gift from a foundation led by Colonel Gaddafi’s son Saif, a former student (Hughes, 2011). While, this may not seem at first reading as having much to do with tourism studies, there is substantial evidence that the Libyan government under Gaddafi funded tourism research as it sought to diversify from oil to tourism (Moore, 2007). This also raises significant moral issues which did not register with many universities’ ethics committees which are primarily concerned with the ethical treatment of vulnerable individuals rather than populations. It also highlights the moral geographies of tourism research where questions of where to conduct research and with whom and in support of which governments can be under-considered. As the chapters in this volume demonstrate, moral encounters in tourism take place within spatial and power relations that render a morality before politics inconceivable (Caton, 2012; see also Butcher, this volume).
