Business Ethics and Tourism
•UTTERWORTH
I'I~E
[NEMANN
0 26 I-5177(95)00015- I
Tourism Management, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 26.3-268, 1995
C opyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0261-5177/95 $10.00 + II.00
C urrent issues
B usiness ethics and tourism: from m icro to macro perspectives
A lf H Walle
Travel and Tourism Program, University of Nebraska, West Center C226, Kearney, NE 68849, USA
Business ethics is a complex field which the tourism industry must understand. In addition, t ourism is a unique industry; although general concepts of business ethics are often useful, t ourism transcends mainstream business and must be evaluated accordingly. By forming alliances with subdisciplines of business which parallel our own interests, tourism can advance in appropriate ways.
I n recent years, tourism has become an increasingly i mportant industry. As a result, a familiarity with t heories of business ethics is essential. The general n ature of much business thought,* however, is not t otally appropriate for tourism, which is a unique i ndustry with its own special needs, priorities and c onsiderations.
T his paper begins with an overview of business e thics as crystallized in a polemical exchange bet ween Milton Friedman and Keith Davis. Since the t ourism industry is greatly influenced by such t hought, this analysis nests tourism ethics within a f amiliar setting.
U sing this overview as a stepping stone, the u niqueness of tourism is discussed in order to e mphasize its character and to propose ethical s trategies which operate in concert with it. By formi ng alliances with subdisciplines of business such as m acromarketing, the tourism industry can embrace
* Since the Second World War and especially since 1960, the b usiness disciplines have increasingly portrayed themselves as g eneral/universal and capable of bcing employed by all organizat ions. In marketing, for example, the definitive statement of
I'I~E
[NEMANN
0 26 I-5177(95)00015- I
Tourism Management, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 26.3-268, 1995
C opyright © 1995 Elsevier Science Ltd
Printed in Great Britain. All rights reserved
0261-5177/95 $10.00 + II.00
C urrent issues
B usiness ethics and tourism: from m icro to macro perspectives
A lf H Walle
Travel and Tourism Program, University of Nebraska, West Center C226, Kearney, NE 68849, USA
Business ethics is a complex field which the tourism industry must understand. In addition, t ourism is a unique industry; although general concepts of business ethics are often useful, t ourism transcends mainstream business and must be evaluated accordingly. By forming alliances with subdisciplines of business which parallel our own interests, tourism can advance in appropriate ways.
I n recent years, tourism has become an increasingly i mportant industry. As a result, a familiarity with t heories of business ethics is essential. The general n ature of much business thought,* however, is not t otally appropriate for tourism, which is a unique i ndustry with its own special needs, priorities and c onsiderations.
T his paper begins with an overview of business e thics as crystallized in a polemical exchange bet ween Milton Friedman and Keith Davis. Since the t ourism industry is greatly influenced by such t hought, this analysis nests tourism ethics within a f amiliar setting.
U sing this overview as a stepping stone, the u niqueness of tourism is discussed in order to e mphasize its character and to propose ethical s trategies which operate in concert with it. By formi ng alliances with subdisciplines of business such as m acromarketing, the tourism industry can embrace
* Since the Second World War and especially since 1960, the b usiness disciplines have increasingly portrayed themselves as g eneral/universal and capable of bcing employed by all organizat ions. In marketing, for example, the definitive statement of