Progress in tourism public sector policy: Toward an ethic for non-human animals

Highlights

• In the 1990s tourism policy was focused mostly on increasing economic returns for destinations.

• After the millennium, tourism policies began considering a broader and deeper range of social and environmental impacts.

• More recent destination policies provide evidence of a growing debate within tourism-focused communities between consumptive activities (i.e. hunting) and less consumptive activities (i.e. photography).

• Many destinations are demonstrating growing concern for the impacts of tourism development and activities on animal welfare.

• Tourism policies are likely to continue evolving along an ethics-focused continuum, which has important implications for tourism planning and management practitioners, government officials, policy makers, as well as academics.

Abstract:

This paper presents the content analysis of 123 tourism policies, from 73 countries, at the national and sub-national level. Specifically, we examined the policies for evidence of growing awareness of and concern for the impacts of tourism development and activities on non-human animals. The analysis reveals that tourism policy has been evolving over time, particularly as it relates to the depth and breadth of issues addressed. Policies that were mostly focused on economics in the 1990s have evolved to now include a broader range of topics related to the welfare of social and natural environments, including concern for the welfare of animals. However, we temper this positive finding by suggesting that until animals are considered a stakeholder in the tourism industry, their rights to exist and thrive will be considered only as it relates to their ability to enhance the attractiveness of and economic potential of a destination.

Introduction

This paper continues the trend in the tourism studies literature in the last few years of expanding the circle of morality by focusing on the interests of non-human animals (herein referred to as animals) used in the practice of tourism. These practices range from competitions (greyhound racing) and fighting (bullfights) to being hunted and fished, used for their senses (guide dogs), used for their strength (ridden or harnessed), kept in captive environments (zoos and aquaria), or simply viewed as ecotourism or wildlife tourism attractions (Fennell, 2012a). In all of these cases, animals are used for purposes of entertainment and commerce (see Wearing & Jobberns, 2011 in reference to the commoditization of animals), which often compromise their health and wellbeing and diminish their inherent value.

Past studies have touched on a range of ethical issues tied to the use of animals in tourism from several moral perspectives (see for example Fennell, 2012a, 2012b, 2013; Fennell & Sheppard, 2011; Shani & Pizam, 2008). Indeed, the moral theory perspective appears to be the most logical manner by which to understand these ethical dilemmas. What is missing in the extant literature, however, is a firmer understanding of how the interests of animals factor into the policy-making discourse of governments at various levels. Tourism policies and strategies are often viewed as the most important benchmarks for the planning, development, and management of tourism within jurisdictions. Assessing these documents over an extended period would provide an historical snapshot of the types of priorities around the use of animals in these regional contexts and would thus provide a needed standard from which to assess future strategies in this area.

As such, it is the purpose of this study to document concern for animal welfare and or rights within the tourism policies of as many national and state jurisdictions as possible. This will be accomplished using two methods. The first is to implement a key word search looking for evidence of a concern for animal welfare and or rights, and, second, to search for progress toward or away from greater concern for the welfare and rights of animals over time.