Towards a welfare focus for tourism research

Abstract

Analysis of the welfare – physical, economic, social, etc. – of all those involved in tourism (tourists, employees, local residents, animals and the environment in which it takes place) is proposed as a means of illuminating tourism's nature and impacts. The paper argues that the welfare of one set of participants may be compromised by efforts to increase that of others and illustrates this with an examination of the contrasting welfare of tourists and non‐tourists; the welfare of tourism employees, especially those who migrate to take up work, versus that of other residents; and the (dis)benefits that accrue to animals and nature when included in the tourism product.

Animal Ethics and Tourism: Deepening a Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) Framework

“…Winter (2020) argues that animal rights and welfare should be considered, particularly when tourists embark on journeys to have an interactive experience with them (Winter, 2020). As people move beyond a human-centered perspective to include nonhuman nature, plants, and other species, the extension of ethical considerations to animals has become a progressively evolving practice in tourism (Hall & Brown, 1996; Hughes, 2001; Winter, 2020).…”

Towards an ethical framework for animal‐based attractions

“…Such issues as identifying and minimizing the negative environmental consequences of the H&T industry and developing new concepts such as sustainable tourism (Hunter, 1997) and ecotourism (Fennell, 1999) have been addressed by numerous authors. However, the issue of animal rights and welfare within the H&T industry represents a relatively neglected area (Hall and Brown, 1996). Clearly, in light of the growing concern about animal rights and welfare, presented in the previous section, the ethical aspects of the use of animals in H&T should be given serious consideration as well.…”

“…Many academic disciplines that study the use of animals, including social sciences and the humanities, recognize the need to address ethical issues relating to both education and research. However, in spite of the large-scale use of animals in the tourism industry, H&T education has practically ignored this issue, both in its curricula and in its research and scientific publications (Hall and Brown, 1996). The animal rights' issue raises concerns that are highly relevant to the ethical development of the H&T industry and, especially the question of whether it is justifiable to keep animals in captivity for the entertainment and education of visitors.…”

“…It is interesting to note that while much of the use of animals is related to the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry, very little effort has been geared towards exploring the ethical aspects of using animals in tourism initiatives (Hall and Brown, 1996). Furthermore, while many professional fields involving the use of animalsusually within the context of experiments on animals, such as psychology, biology and medical studies -have dedicated a considerable amount of research and teaching to ethical dilemmas and debates, no equivalent progress was made in the field of H&T studies, in spite of the massive use of animals in this industry (Lück and Jiang, 2007;Orams, 1996;Zhang and Lee, 2007).…”