Who could be against ethical tourism? To argue against it is to court the charge of being unethical, which at a time when ethical living is such a prominent issue would seem bizarre.

However, I will argue that ethical tourism, as constituted through the many debates and discussions in universities and beyond, is a thoroughly bad idea. Not only does its advocacy amount to a slight on the holidaymaker in search of fun and relaxation, it is also premised upon assumptions that, far from being ethical, are profoundly reactionary when viewed from a humanist standpoint.

In this spirit, it is worth considering what could be regarded as the social construction of ethical tourism - why is it that the extension of leisure travel, generally seen in the past as a part of economic and social progress, is now (for some at least) characterised by ethical dilemmas? Why is ethical tourism more often than not associated with small-scale initiatives that make a virtue of changing little, even in places wracked by poverty?

A Pervasive Agenda

Calls for ethical tourism have a relatively recent vintage. In the 1980s, Krippendorf's The Holiday Makers (1987) painted a grim picture of modern tourism, and at times reads as a manifesto for a new, ‘ethical’ tourist. More recent titles such as Preserve or Destroy: Tourism and the Environment (Croall, 1995) and The Paving of Paradise and What You Can Do To Stop It (MacLaren, 1998) exemplify a pervasive negative view of the development of mass leisure travel. Along with GM food and supermarkets, the growth of holiday making - something we may have expected to be worthy of celebration - is viewed through a dark lens and seen as exemplary of damaging globalisation. Ethical tourism, for its advocates, is a counter to this.