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Ethical Tourism Business Management

Any player in an organised and defined industry, such as tourism, must follow a set of rules called business ethics. These examine ethical principles and moral problems that arise in a business environment. They apply to all aspects of conduct of the business organisation as a whole.

In the turn of the 21st century, marketplaces became increasingly conscience-focused, with much consideration for their environmental, social, and economic impact. This is particularly true for the tourism industry, which experienced a substantial boom in recent years. There is an increasing demand for more ethical business processes and practices especially that tourism literally affects lots of other sectors like retail, travel, manufacturing, and banking.

In the United Kingdom, business ethics is quite obvious in that the government imposes higher taxes on higher emission vehicles. This policy is relevant to the tourism industry of the country, where car rental, airport transfers and limousine services are abundant. Other standards for public behaviour would also help regulate the actions taken by both local people and foreign nationals in the area. One great example of this would be age limit for drinking liquor and visiting bars. Another is the prohibition of and discipline for bringing illegal drugs and unlicensed firearms. Such policy would definitely curb crimes and accidents, when implemented and executed properly.

Another area where business ethics must come into play is pricing. Even with high competition, the tourism industry must observe proper ethics. This is rather advantageous for globetrotters because intense rivalry often results in lower prices and better services. On the part of tourism service providers, healthy competition allows them to seek ways to cut down costs without compromising service and product quality. In short, they become more strategic and creative.

Whatever core values and ethical standards are being observed by a company, everything largely rests on the ability of the senior or executive management to implement them all. For this reason, higher level positions need to be occupied by individuals with consciousness for making morally, politically, environmentally and socially acceptable actions and decisions. It is never enough to make enormous amounts of profits. At the end of the day, a business that excels in different areas will do better in the long-term than one that excels only in the financial aspect.