Tourism and Applied Ethics

This paper argues that the field of applied ethics, in association with its theoretical counterpart, must be used more extensively by tourism researchers and those working in the field in order to address many of the pressures and dilemmas brought about by the operations of the tourism industry. The presentation (i) explores a number of normative ethical theories which may be applied to tourism industry situations; (ii) briefly examines the organizational structure of agencies involved in environmental and business ethics as models for the development of similar bodies in tourism; and (iii) develops a conceptual framework which links tourism interactions with ethics and impacts. It is further maintained that, on the basis of the use of applied ethics by other disciplines (e.g., business and medicine), it is not so much a question of whether applied ethics will be incorporated into the mainstream of tourism research and education, but rather when.