Tourism as a Vehicle of Sustainability
An Interdisciplinary Perspective
TOMAŽ GRUŠOVNIK
University of Primorska
Science and Research Centre of Koper, Slovenia
Faculty of Tourism Studies Portorož - TURISTICA, Slovenia
tomaz.grusovnik@zrs.upr.si, tomaz.grusovnik@turistica.si
Abstract
In sustainability debate tourism is usually seen as presenting an ecological threat and its impacts are mainly considered to stand in need of eradication or at least minimization. In contrast to this view present paper tries to develop a perspective from which specific form of educational tourism can be perceived as an important contribution to environmental ethics and, consequently, to efforts in achieving sustainability. Paper shows that proper implementation of environmental ethics should be considered as the best way how to achieve sustainability and that in education for this environmental ethics tourism should be used as an important tool because of its ability to provide situational experience needed in this educational process, as is show with an interdisciplinary study, connecting insights gained in the areas of social psychology, consumer behavior, ethics, tourism studies, history of leisure and philosophy. Special attention is paid to contemporary studies in alternative tourism, ecotourism and tourism history research in order to envisage a framework out of which appropriate tourism products could be developed for education in environmental ethics. Findings of this paper are of special interest not only for tourism industry but also for environmental curricula and educational institutions which see achieving sustainability as their primary goal.
Key words: ecotourism, educational tourism, environmental ethics, education for environmental ethics, sustainability, sustainable development
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1 Introduction
In general, tourism is viewed as a phenomenon that represents potential ecological threat to the environment: increased numbers of tourists inevitably mean increased demands on environment and thus also increased bad impacts [Butler 1993: 33-34]. From 1950 to 2004 international tourist arrivals only have skyrocketed from 25.3 million to 765.1 million with an average annual growth of 6.8% [wto 2006], reaching 922 million in 2008 [wto 2009a: 2]. Such increase in tourist numbers inevitably means high pressure on resources needed to support travelling community.1 Next to its bad impact on destination's environment, mass tourism also represents a threat of socially disturbing local culture and way of life [Fennell 2006a: 4]. Moreover, conventional mass tourism on the long run affects tourism industry itself by minimizing the worth of 'pristine' or 'natural' experience worth paying for [Eadington & Smith 1992: 7; for a detailed discussion on authenticity and the ethics of tourism cf. Smith & Duffy 2003: 114-134]. A. Leopold has succinctly observed this phenomenon in as early as first part of the twentieth century:
"I...I the very scarcity of wild places, reacting with the mores of advertising and promotion, tends to defeat any deliberate effort to prevent their growing still more scarce.
It is clear without further discussion that mass-use involves a direct dilution of the opportunity for solitude; that when we speak of roads, campgrounds, trails, and toilets as 'development' of recreational resources, we speak falsely in respect of this component. Such accommodations for the crowd are not developing (in the sense of adding or creating) anything. On the contrary, they are merely water poured into the already-thin soup." [Leopold 1949:172-173]
If we take these observations into account we cannot but agree with Fennell that "From the perspective of financial prosperity and growth, there is an economic rationale for sustainability." [Fennell 2006a: 9].
1 One of the most severe negative impacts of tourism on environment can be accounted to transportation: 91% of all inbound tourists in 2008 used air or road - the biggest pollutants - as their means of transport [Ibid: 3]. Among environmental impacts of tourism Mowforth and Munt include pollution of the (Mediterranean) sea, deforestation and consequent soil erosion, littering and wildlife disturbance [Mowforth & Munt 1998: 95]. For a whole very telling list of negative impacts of tourism industry on host community see also: Fennell 2006b: 3.
In face of at least three malignant side-effects of conventional intensive tourism - ecological, social and tourist-experience-related - as outlined above, researchers and tourism industry itself were fast to point out that change in tourism practice is desired. This change gradually came to be known under the name 'alternative tourism,' (at) of which ecotourism (with its related, almost synonymous 'soft', 'responsible', 'people to people', 'controlled', 'small-scale,' 'cottage' and 'green' varieties [cf. Ibid.: 5]) became probably the most widespread form. Even though the term as such doesn't have a clear-cut definition (what might, as Donohoe and Needham argue, represent a potential threat for its ethical, environmental and legitimating underpinnings [Donohoe & Needham 2006: 192]), what usually counts as 'ecotourism' must satisfy at least following conditions (in ranked order from the most to the less important): 1/ nature-based, 2/ preservation/conservation, 3/ education, 4/ sustainability, 5/distribution of benefits, 6/ ethics/responsibility/awareness [Ibid.: 199]. Clearly, emphasis is here put on "avoiding or reducing negative impacts upon the natural and socio-cultural environments," as part of the wto Sustainable Development for Tourism Mission Statement states [wto 2009b].
Even though, as Fennell points out, we are these days "/.../ more prone to vilify or characterise conventional mass tourism as a beast, a monstrosity which has few redeeming qualities for the destination region, their people and their natural resource base," [Fennell 2006a: 4] beneficial consequences of tourism are, of course, recognized. This element is partly mentioned in Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, in the resolution adopted by un General Assembly on December 21st, 2001 [A/REs/56/212] by "Recognizing the important dimension and role of tourism as a positive instrument towards the alleviation of poverty and the improvement of the quality of life for all people ..." [Global Code of Ethics for Tourism 2001] where important stress is also put on "promotion of a responsible and sustainable tourism." [Ibid.] In this statement - and in related literature - stress is, however, usually put on economic aspects of development and tourism's impact on nature is still considered to be predominately negative or at
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best ambivalent and the same - with little differences -holds true for tourism's impact on hosting community. Even in ecotourism studies, research mainly focuses on economic benefits of ecotourism to local communities, socio-economic profile and motivations of ecotourists, ecotourism planning and development, ecotourism business and marketing, ecotourism impacts and estimation of the value of wildlife in protected areas [outlined with relevant literature in: Lee et al.: 2009: 583]. Given the fact that 'ethics', 'responsibility,' 'awareness' and most of all 'education' are recognized as being one of the main constantly recurring themes in ecotourism definitions, as we have seen above, the relative lack of tourism and ecotourism literature focusing on these topics (and predominantly on its potential educational component) tries to be compensated for in this paper.
The main idea presented here is that tourism with properly designed and managed specific products could be used as a powerful educational tool in extending (environmental) ethical consciousness which might result in less human-caused environmental degradation. Thus viewed, tourism might become an important vehicle for achieving sustainability via its educational potential. Tourism could therefore be seen also as a promoter of sustainable behaviors, not just as a problem that has to have its consequences only minimized.
To properly understand and represent this idea it is necessary to take a look into motivations for achieving sustainability and, consequently, into environmental ethics that, if it is promoted and properly spread, is capable of bringing about a much desired change in human behavior towards natural environment. One of the main tenets of this paper is that such ethics could use environmental tourism products as its main tools; in other words: ethical education could be more successfully implemented if adequate tourism products would be integrated into it as its constituent educating parts. It is worth noting here that forms of tourism that could serve this purpose do not include exclusively ecotourism: for example, landfill viewing, mine or stone-pit visit could produce a desired educational effect although they can scarcely be counted under 'ecotourism' category. Ideas for further research on tourist 'attractions' and related issues that could be
included in this idea of environmental-educational tourism will be given at the end of the paper, but it is still worth pointing out right at the start that prevalent idea that in tourism only ecotourism can be considered as beneficial for environment might be misleading as well and prevent us from seeing tourism's potential for ethics and society in general; in the same way as the idea that tourism's impacts on environment should mostly be managed and minimized only.
2 Environmental Ethics And Sustainability
Human-caused environmental degradation is a long known fact and has been described already by Plato in his Critias (111 a-d) in 4th century bce in ancient Greece. Nonetheless, it wasn't before the outbreak of full-fledged industrial revolution that first concerns were raised about conserving natural resources and practical conservation attempts were undertaken by figures such as Gifford Pinchot. However, it wasn't until second half of the twentieth century that the debate on 'sustainability' has become widespread. Sustainability, defined as
"The Sustainability of human populations involving the persistence through time of the diversity of human communities and ethical ideals of human flourishing, the dynamically balanced development of economic enterprise, and the preservation and regeneration of ecological systems and resources that sustain that development." [Carpenter 1998: 276]
has become central in environmental debate since Our Common Future or Brundtland Report of 1987 of World Commission on Environment and Development. Today the pressing need for sustainability is evident from the scale of environmental degradation. Only a brief look at a Global Footprint indicator shows that humanity today lives beyond planet's carrying capacity2 and that environmental situation is serious. And such a serious state of environmental affairs requires
2 Ecological footprint is an indicator based on data collected by u N of how
much land a society needs in order to support its life-style; i.e. it shows how much area is needed for a society in order to provide for its resources and absorb its waste. Current global footprint (that takes into account humanity as a whole) is 1.4, and "This means it now takes the Earth one year and five months to regenerate what we use in a year." [Global Footprint Network 2009]
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immediate action; at least here scientists and laity are practically unanimous.
However, there seem to be different strategies how to achieve sustainability. Whereas some would say that present-day economic structure only needs redefining [Hawken et al. 1999], others would argue that a much more radical change of world economic system is what should be called for [for instance Bookchin 2004]. But virtually no-one would argue that consumption as a consequence of economic system(s) has to be reshaped, if environment is to be preserved and that ethics is crucial to sustainability is by now also widely recognized.3 Carpenter, for instance, outlines its three main contributions in this area: 1/ "Ethical discussion can contribute positively to sustainability discussions by addressing the tradeoffs between intergenerational human interests and intragenerational requirements that human populations are faced with in a world of scarce resources." 2/ "Ethics can also provide methods of articulating current values reflective of the human/nature interaction." 3/ "Additionally, ethics can draw attention to unsustainable human practices by formulating systematic sanctions for anthropogenic activities directly implicated in a loss of human cultures, nonhuman flora and fauna, as well as geological
3 In the past the answer to environmental problem has usually been 'better and more efficient technology.' By now it has become clear that this obviously cannot be a sufficient strategy: technology may be our best means in achieving sustainability, but without proper stance towards environmental problems, and without adequate awareness, even the best tools turn out to be useless. What is required as urgently as technology and science are also adequate societal institutions which can properly develop and utilize technological and scientific instruments so as to produce desired environmental change. At least few intertwined points could be stated in favor of this assumption: first, society, including its products and its ways of manipulating them, is a part of an ecosystem; some scientists have carried this thought so far as to suggest that society is a form of symbiosis and human agriculture not intrinsically different from an ant colony that cultivates fungi [Sallares 1991: 11-12; Leopold 1949: 202]. Therefore the modus operandi of a society cannot be separated from its position in the ecosystem, or, to put it in other words, in tackling environmental problems considerations about society are of equal importance as its technology and science. This last statement ties in well with the work of Kleinman who shows (second point) that what he calls 'techno science' is inevitably social and political in its nature [Kleinman 2005: 5-14]; scientific methodology depends on 'structures of knowledge' and broader social phenomena [Lee & Wallerstein 2001], as well as 'paradigm shifts' on a par with political revolutions, as Th. Kuhn has observed in his well known work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions [Kuhn 1962 [1986]]. Moreover, T. Sasaki observes that difficulties arise when scientists try to address environmental problems because of coordination of scientific activity in this field due to high specialization of disciplines which represents an 'important intellectual challenge.' [Sasaki 2004: ix] Needless to say, recognizing this point of intertwining of society, communication, science and ecology is highly important when looking for workable solutions in achieving sustainability.
processes and cycles." [Carpenter 1998: 277]. But if we go even more down to the base, the role of ethics in guiding and coordinating human activity (in general, not only in regard to sustainability) lies predominantly in its ability to shape values. Values - and beliefs - are namely considered to be primary guidelines for action. This idea is not only predominant in philosophical tradition of pragmatism, it also shapes basic theories of consumer behavior studies:
"Although for most people being a consumer may not be central to their identity, many of their consumer decisions are nevertheless highly identity-relevant insofar as they correspond to a larger set of values and beliefs and express important aspects of the self." [Wanke 2009:7]
More specifically in tourism studies and sustainability, values are considered to be of central importance [Fennell 2006a: 8]. Because values play such a big role in human conduct, it is not surprising that we will find ethical considerations emerge as soon as issues in a specific domain become pressing; what regards environment and environmental ethics, ethical statements were surfacing throughout Western intellectual history,4 but they became louder especially in twentieth century with A. Leopold, and later with Deep Ecology of A. Naess, G. Sessions and B. Devall.
To say that ethics is important is, however, still not saying much: the real question of course lies in the kind of ethics we want to envisage. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of ethical approaches: a deonto-logical ones (focusing on moral obligation and duty) and numerous versions of utilitarian ethics (focusing on consequences of conduct). Ethics could, further, be approached either from a metaphysical perspective (for instance looking for a common property that makes all individuals as morally relevant subjects (i.e. subjects to which we are morally obliged) - usually this property comes in a form of 'reason' (German idealism) or 'feeling-ability to perceive pain and pleasure' (Buddhism)) or they could be based on a theory of 'moral sentiment' which is responsible for our moral
4 One of the first environmental ethic statements was envisaged already by a French renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne in 16. century, by stating in his essay On Cruelty that "/.../ there is a kind respect and a duty in a man as genus which links us not merely to the beasts, which have life and feelings, but even to trees and plants." Cf. Montaigne 2004: 185.
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judgment (first proposed by Scottish enlightenment philosophers). The second idea found its contemporary advocate in an intellectual figure of Richard Rorty, highly influential American pragmatist thinker.
Rorty's pragmatist ethics is important because of the fact that it isn't based on any specific metaphysical view, i.e. it does not presuppose a common property, or substance, for morally relevant subjects which would have to be discovered, agreed upon and acknowledged. This has very important tangible practical consequences for ethics: we shouldn't look for any specific natural property but should instead cultivate our sentiments. This is so because, for Rorty, there is no such 'thing', such demarcating property, waiting outside to be discovered:5
"The relevant similarities are not a matter of sharing a deep true self that instantiates true humanity, but are such little, superficial similarities as cherishing our parents and our children - similarities that do not distinguish us in any interesting way from many nonhuman animals." [Rorty 1998:181]
Therefore, 'moral progress' for Rorty consists "/.../ in an increasing ability to see the similarities between ourselves and people very unlike us as outweighing the differences." [Ibid.] Instead of wasting time by trying to discover nonexistent hidden reality, philosophers in general and ethicists in particular should, in Rorty's view, rather focus on evoking feelings of solidarity among different people (and, we may add, among living beings and nature in general).6 For such an undertaking Rorty espoused literature: drawing from M. Kundera's The Art of Novel which opposes novel to rigid scientific discovery, bound up with Cartesian certainty [Kundera 1988], Rorty held that solidarity could be best spread with disseminating inspiring stories, but also accounts of human misery that evoke feelings of sympathy [Rorty 1998: 185].
It might be said that Rorty's idea of listening to stories is too optimistic for a world in which majority of people scarcely find time, or will, to read novels: what is need-
5	For Rorty namely there is no reality independent from human practices and vocabularies which are ultimately contingent; this is a feature of his philosophy largely borrowed from L. Wittgenstein.
6	Such extension of Rortyian ethics was attempted in my presentation at
the colloquium Education For Sustainable development and University at Faculty of Humanities Koper [Grusovnik 2009].
ed in environmental ethics is mass change and such a change can - if it can be brought about - be achieved only with mass media: tv with films, advertising, etc. In fact, Shrum [Shrum 2009: 251] has shown that tv does have an underlying narrative or storytelling effect and Cialdini and Goldstein [Cialdini & Goldstein 2009] have verified that norm-advertising may successfully result in pro-environmental behavior and shown also how vocabulary in it plays a significant role. Research in social psychology thus seem to support, if not actually extend, Rorty's intuitive idea and Wapner's text on transnational environmental activism only seems to give it additional credibility when recognizing the role of the civil society movements and their campaigns in shaping international pro-environmental policies (state as well as corporate) including Greenpeace's success with 'performances' connected to organized media broadcasting [Wapner 2003].
There is, however, an unpleasant consequence for advertising, t v and web media for education. Firstly, tv commercials with purportedly 'green' content (if we speak about education for environmental ethics in particular) are highly prone to abuse: as J. Corbett shows, 'green' media campaigns are very likely to be usurped by corporate interests which has a rather bizarre set of data as a result: in Corbett's quoted research only 2% of tv and 9% of print ads with purportedly 'green content' were truly 'deeply green' in the sense of Naess's Deep Ecology [Corbett 2006: 155]; Corbett thus cites the words of W.E. Kilbourne, drawing a conclusion that "/.../ a truly Green ad is indeed an oxymoron: 'the only green product is the one that is not produced.'" [Corbett 2006: 157]. Secondly, it could also be argued that experience mediated by t v, internet or other forms of mass communication is not a genuine experience and is thus insufficient for learning, true personal growth and actual personal change; that it is, in other words, diminished experience: referring to internet's supposed 'tele-presence,' H. Dreyfus emphasizes that the crucial element of 'real experience' needed for learning is the element of readiness for risky surprises (or: seriousness of situation) that is absent from cyber-experience [Dreyfus 2009: 54, 70-71]. If genuine empathy and solidarity are to be achieved,
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obviously something more substantial and thoroughgoing will be needed than tv programs.7 And this is exactly the point where tourism could enter the stage and be conceived as an important factor in Rorty's idea of 'sentimental education' in the sense of filling-in the empty space of more 'pristine experience' that cannot be achieved by media: on trips, excursions, museum visits, cultural and natural endeavors abroad, and other activities connected with tourism, people are, to be sure, brought closer to real, even personal, experience than through media.
Before proceeding to tourism in environmental ethics let us quickly overview the most important topics arrived at in present chapter: we have seen that in order to minimize environmental degradation that threatens the existence of civilization as we know it it is not enough to develop adequate technology but also to implement environmental values; this is so because values and beliefs shape our conduct. One of the most interesting ways to do this is via ethics that employs Rortian idea of 'manipulating sentiments' and we have also seen that empirical research supports this idea as a viable and credible way how to achieve sustainability if only we substitute Rorty's novels as means of spreading solidarity with media that have larger range. Nevertheless, the idea of using media in environmental ethics education can raise certain issues: firstly, environmental messages in media are often abused, and secondly, experience transmitted through media does not necessarily carry enough potential for personal ethical change (because of its 'shallowness'). Tourism as a means of transmitting more adequate and thoroughgoing experience could thus be used to fill-in this blank spot. In next chapter we turn more specifically to this idea.
7 for instance, social psychology has observed that norms that hit subjects as salient must be obtained from the reference group with which they are able to successfully identify themselves (usually peers and friends) and that situational perception plays greater role than cognition [Cialdini & Goldstein 2009: 276]. Note also that this last research statement seems to additionally confirm Rorty's idea of 'sentimental education,' in the sense that norms are obtained from reference group(s) and not arrived at through moral consideration.
3 Tourism in Environmental Ethics
When the topics of tourism and ethics are combined, they are usually viewed in an one-directional perspective: how tourism should incorporate ethics and become more responsible. What is usually examined are tourism impacts "as the traditional root of ethical issues in tourism." [Fennell 2006b: 1]. This is not surprising given the fact observed above that tourism is usually seen as something that has to be 'managed' and not also as something that could contribute to ethics in its own right.
Educational component in itself, however, does play an important role in ecotourism as we have also observed above. When Fennell traces first ecotourism practices in mid-1970s, it is clear that back then in Canadian Forestry Service's 'ecotour guides' precisely understanding landscape was a primary aim to which travelers should dedicate their time:
"Ecotours are prepared by the Canadian Forestry Service to help you, as a traveller, understand the features of the landscape you see as you cross the country. Both natural and human history are described and interpreted." [Fennell 2006a: 19]
Education is also being recognized as one of the main features of European national parks and includes, as is well known, strolling and hiking on waymarked paths and interpretive trails [Heukemes et al. 1992: 12]. What is needed, then, is to connect the idea of education in tourism and the idea of enlarging experience-related solidarity in ethics, which is either still lacking or is not consciously articulated.8
To be sure: tourism's potential in education for environmental ethics is big. Some research in the area which can be connected to environmental ethics (in particular to its 'personal growth' component described already by Deep Ecology) has already been carried out where education, experience and learning has
8 That the second scenario is more likely to hold true is due to the fact that most educational waymarked paths do in fact stress the importance of nature conservation for further generations. The same is the case in museums in nature exhibits. However, outside of museums and interpretive trails this ideas in their relation to environmental ethics do not seem to be pronounced enough: this could be perhaps ascribed to the fact that we still mostly consider ethics as being something more related to cognitive processes than to experience-sharing and on-site learning. Outside of tourism studies virtually no-one considers tourism as an important factor of ethical education.
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been combined into a holistic 'wilderness education' [Bachert 1990]. The importance of education, especially of cultivation of 'perceptive quality' for environmental ethics, has also been pointed out long ago [Leopold 1949]. The distinctive mark of tourism's experience and its quality for the kind of environmental ethics that was outlined above is its relative immediacy and relatedness to concrete practical situation in comparison to experience as is shared through mass media or literature. This feature cannot be overestimated when it comes to providing motivation and means for shaping human conduct: we have seen above that in obtaining norms that are considered to be salient for subjects, situational perception plays greater role that cognition [Cialdini & Goldstein 2009: 276]. Even in general it has been proposed that what can be considered as one of the most serious issues contemporary consumer societies are facing is subjects' detachment from resource-usage and manufacturing techniques that are used to provide products for consumption - i.e., people aren't aware how costly in terms of energy and resource use contemporary production is (which is an important - if not the most important - cause of environmental degradation), a fact which can also be considered as being responsible for our often non-appreciative attitudes towards products and further results into meaningless lives which lack 'focal practice' which "/.../ disclose the world about us - our time, our place, our heritage, our hopes - and center our lives." [Borgmann 2000: 421]9
Thus it could be considered that tourism with adequate products could provide more substantial experience in educating for environmental ethics: because of the situational experience one has from taking part in an excursion, or wildlife area visit, or related tourist activities, one would have certainly greater motivation to follow specific ethical norms in comparison to being solely confronted with t v programs, brochures, lectures, or classes.
The role of learning in (eco)tourism has, on the other hand, also been recognized as an attractive research
9 An example of 'focal practice' is for Borgmann a dinner: "The preparation of the meal, the gathering around the table, and the customs of serving, eating and conversing /.../" [Ibid.] in opposition to, for instance, meal at the fast food restaurant.
field by leading researchers in the area: again, Fennell states that:
"Further research in this area might endeavour to understand the differences or similarities between novelty and curiosity, and learning. I...I In addition, further research may wish to examine the relationship between knowledge and learning in nature tourism. Knowledge can be thought of as information one applies to a situation, whereas learning is something that results from participation. There is little question that nature tourists learn from the experience, but it is important to view learning in terms of the primary motivation for the tourist." [Fennell 2006a: 26]
Fennell here, in addition, clearly recognizes the importance of learning (participation; more 'situational experience') in contrast to mere knowledge; but he also points out that the motivation of (eco)tourist here might represent a problem - are people generally motivated to go learning when they go on an ecotrip? Or is gathering new learning-experience rather just mere side-effect of their travels? It is hard to answer this question from contemporary perspective without additional research, as Fennell points out, but at least from tourism history we know that the first scenario has been the case in the past.
That precisely learning was one of the most important causes of first European travelers is a known fact: Grand Tour's first aim was to "finish off their [young noblemen's] education /.../" [Loefgren 2002: 158]. Moreover, what first drew English Victorian families to the seaside was precisely education, and nature education more specifically:
"There was a tremendous enthusiasm for natural history in early Victorian Britain, and seaside offered particularly good opportunities for collecting and examining specimens. I.I The writer of one of these [guides to natural history], W.H. Harvey, stressed that there was no excuse for boredom on a seaside holiday: 'There is no need to import the winter resources of cities - balls, parties, and theatrical representations - to a watering-place ... There is so much to be enjoyed by the sea-shore when the mind is once opened to the pleasure afforded by the study of Natural History, that no other stimulus is wanted to keep the interest of the visitor constantly awake.'" [Payne 2002:95-96]
It is worth noting here that the idea of a seaside visit was perceived negatively by British Victorian public
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in 19th century and that seaside was synonymous with a place of boredom, vanity and trivial pursuits and that precisely education in natural history was one of the lures for tourists which helped transform seaside into a place for holidays [Ibid.: 88ff].10
Next to interest in natural history, Payne points out two other motives that gradually reshaped the views of Vicotiran British population on seaside: religious meditation on infinity but also considering it as a place of reverence for home, family, landscape and truth [Ibid. 92]. One of new emerging perceptions of the beach was certainly something we could call a place where families could count on having a lot of - if we use the term from above - 'focal practice.' But despite this historical facts the question that Fennell raises - if similar motives could be found in contemporary tourists and travelers - nevertheless remains and since it seems vital for the idea of educational nature tourism it will be addressed immediately in the next chapter. After a brief overview of the present chapter we will also try to portray some of the consequences of present discussion for educational tourism for environmental ethics in practice.
We have seen that when the topics of tourism and (environmental) ethics are presented together, they are usually viewed in an one-directional perspective which stresses the importance of ethics in tourism but somewhat neglects the idea that tourism could help in achieving greater environmental awareness as well, by providing necessary situational experience needed for environmental ethical education. We have also seen that educational potential of tourism is recognized by tourism researchers and that precisely education and 'focal practices' were main motives for first seaside tourists in Victorian Britain, but we nevertheless face a lack of interest in the role of tourism when education in ethics is reflected upon, and this is especially the case outside of tourism studies. It is, however, as Fennell points out, questionable to what degree
10 Similarly later well known resort Nice was first conceived as boring, minimally attractive place: "During the eighteenth century Nice was an obscure town, an unpopular stopover on the Grand Tour to Italy. The sandy and rocky Riviera did not constitute a pleasing scenery. The British
writer John Fielding longed for green England, when passing through this barren coast." [Loefgren 2002: 163]
contemporary tourists and travelers would state 'education' and 'learning' as their primary vacationing motives. This might affect proper implementation of tourism products which would enhance (environmental) ethical norms and this is going to be the main topic of interest in the next chapter.
4 Tourism as a Component In Education for Environmental Ethics in Practice
We have seen that tourism bears fruitful potential for education in environmental ethics and that motive to learn about nature has been an important factor for tourism (seaside visits and Grand Tour) in the past. But if it is to be considered as a serious component in education for environmental ethics it should also be pointed out how viable such a strategy would be in practical terms: here we will thus consider the option of educational tourism being an important motive for tourists and travelers and, secondly, touch on the nature of tourism products and 'attractions' that could be offered in this respect.
If any substantial change in our environmental attitudes is to be achieved, such a change will have to be a massive one, as pointed out above. But is it realistic to expect that people will start traveling because of their desire to learn, as this seems to be necessary if tourism should start playing an important role in education for environmental ethics? This is, frankly put, not too realistic an expectation: because of their busy schedules, or other reasons, we may expect that people by themselves will continue to go on vacations to rest, not to engage in additional work. As Butler pointed out:
"/.../ many people seem to enjoy being a mass tourist. They actually like not having to make their own travel arrangements, not having to find accommodation when they arrive at a destination, being able to obtain goods and services without
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learning a foreign language, being able to stay in reasonable, in some cases considerable comfort, /.../." [Butler 1990: 40]11
Does this mean that the idea of tourism as an important component of education in environmental ethics is too utopian? Such a conclusion would be made too hastily as it does not consider special nature of the present proposal: we have to remind ourselves that the idea of environmental ethics in general is needed because we humans do not act responsibly when it comes to our environment; that we do not act so when it comes to picking our holidays can be viewed as a special case in our otherwise already unsustainable consumer behavior, and that is precisely why we need environmental ethics and education. To say that people will not choose environmental educational tourism as their way of vacationing seems to put the cart before the horse: of course - tourism as a part of education for environmental ethics should not be viewed as just one of the options from which tourists can choose, but instead as a method of education that only consequently shapes consumer's preferences. Therefore, stressing the fact that people's motives for vacationing lie elsewhere than in educational tourism is in a sense irrelevant, as this kind of tourism is envisaged for the
11 In general, ecotourism, and alternative tourism (at) as such, have been viewed as a two-sided phenomena: it has been argued that eco-tourism initiatives have doubtful effect on local communities, for instance on Maya community in Belize [cf. Smith & Duffy 2003: 142-143]. Also, because of their specific appeal to ecotourists, some most unique and fragile resources could be under heavy demand-pressure which would, on the other hand, be of no particular appeal to mass-tourists [Butler 1993: 39]; similarly ecotourism could also 'invade' areas that would otherwise not experience tourism because they aren't in general interest of masstourist industry and would thus in reality only add to general bad impacts of tourism. [Butler 1993: 43]. And so 'the 'cure' may be even worse than symptoms.' [Butler 1993: 32] Similarly as Corbett above in case ofa 'green ad,' Swarbrooke & Horner seem to say that thus the only 'totally green' tourist is the one that stays at home [Swarbrooke & Horner 1999: 202 (figure 14.4)] and that 'green' as an adjective in tourism is invented by marketers to sell trips to people that want to feel good about themselves [Swarbrooke & Horner 1999: 197, 202]. (Moreover, there is also an issue regarding true 'uniqueness' and 'authenticity' of thus gained experience [Smith & Duffy 2003: 114-134], the supposedly strong point of tourism in comparison to media for which we argued in previous chapter, if the tourism products aren't devised carefully and aren't properly managed). Moreover, Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Plan for Indigenous Resources), supposedly a remarkable example of a responsible tourism project that wants to reconcile the needs of development on the one hand and conservation on the other (especially conservation of wildlife such as elephants), has to resort to animal sport hunting in order to provide funds for the preservation of larger herd which led to many criticisms from environmentally conscious lobbies [Smith & Duffy 2003: 154-155]. Thus it is clear that ecotourism and at need more careful planning in the future if they are to be seen as a viable alternatives to mass tourism. Maybe re-orientation of ecotourism towards 'well-being and socio-cultural paradigm based on participatory democracy and equitable, meaningful relationships with the biophysical world' are what is needed [cf. Jamal 2006].
task of precisely altering those motives.
This ascertainment raises the question of who should then, in turn, be viewed as promoting tourism as a means for educating in environmental ethics. The answer to this question is not simple but it should nevertheless be pointed out that if stopping environmental degradation is one of the main society's political tasks, it seems reasonable that state's educational policy should be the first to endorse it in the sense of incorporating it into ethical curricula. Next could come ngos that deal with environmental protection and conservation education, and so on. Actually, some educational policies have already long ago embraced similar tourist projects in their curricula.12 We have to constantly bear in mind that reflections about educational nature tourism in this paper are relevant for the tourism studies in at least the same degree as they are for education in ethics and thus also for institutions that are responsible for the latter. However, even if the help of institutions to shape consumer preferences of tourists is left aside - although in the present paper this is considered to be of vital importance for the future of our environment -, it is clear from the research that educational tourism and ecotourism are gaining in importance in regard to their tourism market share: 'serious leisure' and volunteerism, which justly qualify as ecotourism [Wearing & Neil 2001: 241] as well as edu-tourism [Wearing & Neil 2001: 239] as a form of holiday experience has seen a 400% growth in investment in volunteers from 1976 to 1991 [Wearing & Neil 2001: 242]. Moreover, 'volunteer vacations' and 'ethical holiday' were predicted to experience growth in popularity in future [Swarbrooke & Horner 1999: 257].
In the second part of this chapter let us now turn to the question of tourism product that could be considered as a part of tourism offers in education for environmental ethics, or - in other words -: how should an 'attraction' in such a tourism look like? Waymarked
12 Slovenian 'School-in-nature' projects in elementary schools could be viewed as a kind of such tourism, albeit not fully articulate in terms of environmental ethics specifically. The idea of educating childeren in nature about nature could not be more in line with Louv's findings that children should spend more time outdoors if we want to avoid the emergence of Nature Deficit Disorder (ndd) and estrangement from nature leads to occurence of ndd symptoms which include severe psychological disturbances [Louv 2005]. There is still a lack of such programs for adult and senior citizen, though, and this could be viewed as an important niche for turism product developers.
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paths and interpretive trails have already been mentioned, but if we want to consider a more holistic tourism experience for visitors, something more engaging will be needed, as, for instance, visiting conservation sights or even participating in conservation, organic food producing, farming, etc.13 However, it seems important to stress the fact that tourism for education in environmental ethics is not simply coextensive with 'ecotourism.' This can easily be seen when we consider such sites as landfills and large industrial areas abundant with heavy industry 'memorials' (such as old and even new factories, but also harbors, airports, etc.) as 'attractions' in the kind of tourism this paper is portraying: such sites could efficiently be used to educate about the large scale of present day production and its environmental impacts, as they have been used in the past in order to foster national pride because of human domination over nature.14
Next to attractions come also appropriate tour guides which are desired in ecotourism in general and in educational tourism in particular. Educating those in order to provide personnel for tourism in education for environmental ethics could be seen as a greater obstacle that finding appropriate sites. Further research should definitively take this issue as one of the most important problems to tackle with. Some work in the area of eco-tourism has been carried out though, and the idea of (Eco)Tour Guide Certification developed by R. Black and S. Ham could be considered as one of the means how to take care of this problem [Black & Ham 2005].
In this chapter we have seen that tourist motives in themselves might not be enough to endorse educational tourism in environmental ethics; but it should
13	The list here is long and those practices overlap to the considerable amount with general ecotourism offers.
14	Regular visits of power plants and various production facilities in Slovenian elementary schools could be again viewed as such tourist phenomenon. Here it might be argued that people will never be interested in such sites as factories, power plants and landfills. This may again be too rash a conclusion as people are obviously very much interested in sites such as nazi concentration camps, for instance in Auschwitz, and in war museums in general (maybe here proposed tourism attractions bear ample resemblance to those sites inasmuch as they also want to serve as an ethical reminder for future generations; for instance a landfill could be viewed as a reminder about human overconsumption). Moreover, sights of environmental degradation arise curiosity, as can clearly be observed in the figure of photographer Edward Burtynsky whose large-scale devastated landscape photos have become extreemely famous (here philosophers such as Kant were far ahead of their time when they stressed - broadly speaking - that 'the disgusting' can be an object of aesthetic contemplation in the same way as 'the sublime').
be stressed that tourism as a part of education for environmental ethics should not be viewed as just one of the options from which tourists can choose, but instead as a method of education that shapes consumer's preferences. Therefore, stressing the fact that people's motives for vacationing lie elsewhere than in educational tourism is in a sense irrelevant, as this kind of tourism is envisaged for the task of precisely altering those motives and consumer behavior in general in order to achieve greater sustainability. Next, we have seen how adequate tourism products could be envisaged and also, that appropriate tour guides might represent additional problem for proper educational nature tourism, an issue which might be dealt with with the model of Tour Guide Certification. In conclusion we turn to a general remark about who and why should endorse tourism as a component in education for environmental ethics and to ideas for further research.
5 Conclusion
As we have seen, tourism as a vehicle of achieving sustainability can be viewed in terms of its great educational component for environmental ethics. Proper attitude towards nature is even more important in achieving sustainability than better and greener technology, because it is ultimately human conduct that is responsible for environmental preservation. Since tourism can provide much valuable experience that is seen as cornerstone in education for environmental ethics, it should be viewed as a necessary part of the latter. Thus, primary interest in such a tourism should lie in institutions and ngos that view achieving sustainability as their primary goal. But as the market for volunteer- and eco- tourism grows, such tourism could also be viewed as one of the priorities for responsible tourism industry.
However, in order to more fully implement here presented ideas in practice, further research would be desired in following fields: education of suitable tour guides, ecotourist's motivation for learning, and design of proper products that could be available in tourism as a component in education for environmental ethics.
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