Tourism and Aldo Leopold's “cultural harvest”: creating virtuous tourists as agents of sustainability

Abstract

Sustainable tourism aims to achieve a balance between the needs of tourists, the environment, local people, and businesses – a situation complicated by the numerous ethical issues at play. This paper presents an original account of the ethics of Aldo Leopold (1887–1948), a key figure in the development of modern environmental ethics, as it unfolds in his classic work, A Sand County Almanac. We argue that prior interpretations failed to incorporate Leopold's lynchpin cultural harvest idea into his larger “land ethic”, and that a proper understanding of the cultural harvest reveals how tourism and other recreational activities can drive a person's ethical development. Ultimately, the land ethic helps us protect and nurture the most precious sustainability resource: human beings that value and respect the environment. The paper will be of value to tourism scholars, to heritage interpreters, to travel journalists, to tourism marketing staff, and to tourism managers. It shows the enormous opportunities for better marketing and heritage interpretation, notes the potential value of slow tourism, and the need for opening five key areas of the cultural harvest for tourists: storytelling, learning and knowledge, beauty and aesthetic appreciation, rarity and the hunt for trophy, and signature/personality.

旅游和·利奥波德的“文化丰收论”：把美德作为旅游可持续发展的一个分支

可持续旅游旨在实现游客，环境，当地群众和企业的需求之间的平衡-由于伦理问题这个目标变得复杂的多。本文介绍了阿尔多·利奥波德（）在现代环境伦理发展的原始理论，这个理论首先出现在他的经典著作—《沙乡年鉴》中。我们认为，之前的解释未能把利奥波德的“文化丰收”思想进入更大范围的“大地伦理”，对文化收获理论的正确认识，揭示了旅游等娱乐活动可以驱动一个人的道德发展。最终，大地伦理有助于我们保护和珍惜最珍贵的可持续性资源：人类对环境的重视和尊重。本文对于旅游学者有非常重大的意义，也包括文物口译者，旅游记者，旅游市场营销人员和旅游管理者。揭示了更好的旅游营销和景区讲解的重大商机，指出慢旅游的潜在价值，以及需要为游客打开文化收获的五个关键领域：讲故事、学习和知识、美容和审美性、稀缺性和寻求战利品、个性。

Keywords:

• sustainable tourism
• ethical tourism
• Aldo Leopold
• land ethic
• environmental ethics
• moral psychology

关键词:

• 可持续旅游
• 道德旅游
• 利奥波德
• 大地伦理
• 环境伦理
• 道德心理学

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to dedicate this article to the memory of Wei-Lun (Allen) Yu, whose gentle persuasion first pressed home to us the force and significance of Leopold's insights.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Noreen M. Breakey

Dr Noreen Breakey is a lecturer at the School of Business, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Her research explores the relationships between people, tourism and the natural environment, through her principal research areas of environmental ethics, sustainable tourism, ecotourism, environmental travel motivations, and tourism in protected areas.

Hugh E. Breakey

Dr Hugh Breakey is a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute for Ethics, Governance and Law, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia. He researches in ethical, political and legal philosophy, specializing in human rights and natural rights, with a particular focus on their distinct modes of protection in an international and United Nations context.