Ethical Tourism

Although ecotourism can be defined as a form of ethical tourism, the term is more usually accepted to mean a form of tourism which does not exploit people.  The people in question are either working within tourism directly, or within sectors which service tourism.  “Ethical Tourism” is currently the poor relation of ecotourism in terms of public awareness, although this is beginning to change and there are organisations like Tourism Concern based in the UK, which is trying to both raise awareness of the field but also campaigns around the world to ensure that people working within tourism are not exploited.  It is a massive task and compared to other fields of similar types of exploitation like child labour, a lot less is known by the wider travelling public about exploitation within global tourism.  There are also more specialised organisations, that work within a specific field is the International Porter Protection Group which fights for the rights of porters working within the trekking industry in Nepal. 

As well as fighting exploitation, ethical tourism is focused on economic development, which is beneficial, in proveable way to the local community and the local economy.  This economic development should negate the worst excesses of free market capitalism.  This is often one of the trickiest elements of ethical tourism to track and monitor effectively, as employment itself can be exploitative and in much of the developing world minimum wage standards don't exist and defining a "fair rate of pay" is really quite problematic.  Also once money from tourism has entered the local economy it can be hard to it is hard to ascertain its medium or long term benefit.  

Sociological and cultural factors also differentiate ecotourism from ethical tourism.  Ecotourism by it very definition is concerned with the environment, ethical tourism as a people focused concept promotes the ideal of cultural exchange.  This exchange should be without a hierarchy or power structure between peoples of different cultural and economic backgrounds, who come into contact with each other as result of tourism.  So for example, groups of tourists visiting tribal groups in Northern Thailand should not objectify those peoples, by taking photographs without consent.  They should not use their financial strength to achieve outcomes which may insult or degrade the peoples they are visiting, like trying to buy items which are not for sale.  This element of ethical tourism is becoming more and more important to a growing number of tourists and travellers, who have seen firsthand the social degradation that mass, unregulated tourism can have upon communities.  

The ethos of ethical tourism and is likely to become more visible in brochures and websites in the coming years as accommodation and travel providers try and demonstrate their wider commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility aside from charitable associations and partnerships and as part of their wider company policies, which help to define them as a company and differentiate them from their competition.