Towards an ethical tourism recovery in Northern peripheries

Abstract

Unsustainable tourism growth prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and disruption of tourism caused by its outbreak, together with the global environmental crisis and different global and local injustices, have raised debates on what tourism should be like in the future. A more ethical tourism sector post-recovery has become a topical issue for strategy making in post-pandemic tourism. In this research note, we tie together local stakeholder views on ethical tourism recovery in northern peripheries, a review of current tourism strategies in the area and relevant literature to add to the debate regarding ethical tourism recovery in the region. Our findings show that the local stakeholders participating in our research saw need for more inclusive and participatory community-centred tourism planning and development than most of the reviewed tourism strategies, which were mainly following neoliberal utilitarian ethics. Ethics should be explicitly referenced and discussed in tourism planning and policy making and form an integral part of tourism strategies, and further research is needed to support this transition.