Stupidity in tourism

ABSTRACT

Various disciplines have called upon further exploration of stupidity. The issue is pertinent to tourism as well. Stupidity in tourism may occur due to the lack of sound judgment by those involved in tourism, and it can negatively impact tourists themselves, other people, animals, organisations, or destinations. We conceptualise various manifestations of stupidity in tourism by adapting Sternberg's Balanced Theory of Wisdom (2003) and Greenspan's Explanatory Model of Human Foolishness to an Imbalanced Theory of Stupidity (2019). We then view stupid behaviour through a framework developed by Cipolla in the book The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity. The framework places all people on two axes: losses/benefits to themselves and losses/benefits to others, thus resulting in four quadrants. This paper provides a basis for further investigation of the irrational behaviour of tourists and the impacts of circumstances on stupid behaviour.

KEYWORDS:

• Stupidity
• foolishness
• irrational behaviour
• risk unawareness
• tourist behaviour

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen Pratt

Stephen Pratt is Head of School of Tourism & Hospitality Management (STHM) at the Univeristy of the South Pacific (USP) from October 2018. From 2013 until his appointment at USP, he worked at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the School of Hotel & Tourism Management. Steve holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Economics from the University of Sydney, Australia and a PhD from the University of Nottingham, UK. His research interests include sustainable tourism development (economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts of tourism), tourism in small island states and film tourism. Steve is co-creator of the popular YouTube channel, The Travel Professors.

Denis Tolkach

Denis Tolkach is Senior Lecturer, Tourism and Hospitality Management at James Cook University, Australia. He served previously as Assistant Professor at School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prior to moving to Hong Kong he has undertaken teaching and research in Australia and Timor-Leste. Tolkach has been teaching a variety of subjects in the hospitality and tourism field. His main interests are in tourism and development, community-based tourism and nature-based tourism.