Seeking a deeper level of responsibility for inclusive (eco)tourism duty and the pinnacle of practice

Abstract

As a form of tourism that aims to be sustainable and, in broader terms, responsible and ethical, ecotourism occupies a peak position in terms of people’s understanding of sustainable tourism. The purpose of this paper is to articulate how responsibility can be actuated through a deeper consideration of duty (good as intrinsic) and strategic (good for business) perspectives. In pursuit of this overall aim, the paper investigates a sample of Ecotourism Australia (EA) certified company websites to examine inclusivity barriers based on the social model of disability: physical, attitudinal, and informational. The choice of Australia is based on the observation that ecotourism providers in this region are often cited as highly advanced in terms of policies and practices. Results suggest that there is only limited statistical support for the hypothesis that the “leading” ecotourism operators (with advanced EA certification) in Australia pay more attention to disability issues than those in the “following” group (with lower categories of EA certification). The paper concludes by suggesting that the responsibility agenda is most likely to move forward by providers adopting ways of "thinking" and "doing" that emphasise duty and justice instead of following accepted business practice.

Keywords:

• Accessibility
• disability
• ecotourism
• responsible tourism
• Ecotourism Australia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the interviewees for giving their time and valuable comments. they would also like to think the reviewers for their very useful comments, which have immeasurably improved the quality of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Appendix A. Design and rationale of the coding guide.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David A. Fennell

David Fennell researches mainly in the areas of ecotourism, tourism ethics, and moral issues tied to the use of animals in the tourism industry, and sustainability. A major thrust of his research involves the use of theory from other disciplines (e.g., biology, philosophy) to gain traction on many of tourism's most persistent issues and problems. Fennell is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Ecotourism.

Brian Garrod

Brian Garrod is Professor of marketing at the School of Management, Swansea University. His interests cover all aspects of tourism marketing and management, but especially nature-based tourism and ecotourism, heritage tourism, visitor attractions and photography in tourism.