ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes some hopeful ideas offered within the ethical dilemmas presented in Animals, Food, and Tourism. Food is routinely given attention in tourism research as a motivator of travel and examined through studies on food festivals, destination images centered on food, the development of food trails, food-based experiences such as cooking classes, and through market studies of foodies and the culinary traveler. Issues surrounding the eating of animals is being addressed within philosophical, spiritual, economic, anthropological, psychological, political, and feminist scholarship, however, the specific issue of animals as food for tourists, and the ethical associations, has to date been neglected. The topic of animals as food within the context of tourism calls into question the boundaries of cultural relativism. Tourism experiences have an opportunity to change minds because people are open to receiving new information, but tourism can amplify a sense of moral disengagement. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in this book.
