ABSTRACT
It may seem odd to think of tourism as an ethical issue like, for instance, abortion, but the complexity of tourism brings with it a range of ethical questions. From the discussion in previous chapters it is evident that tourism raises issues of the equality and type of interaction both between humans and with our surroundings. Equality, fairness, morality, the rights of animals and nature are all relevant issues to tourism. Given that tourism is predominantly based upon meeting the needs of individuals who are usually paying for the privilege, Smith and Duffy (2003: 7) ask some basic questions about the ethics of tourism:
Is tourism all about the egoistic satisfaction of those paying for the privilege or should ethics play a part? What does it mean to say that a certain way of behaving, or a particular kind of tourism development, is wrong? Can the tourism industry ‘afford’ morality?
