Influence of Market Ethics

Abstract

Society is at a critical juncture in its relationship with the natural environment, a relationship in which tourism has growing significance. Yet, twenty years after the Brundtland Report, environmental policy has to date had little influence upon the workings of the tour- ism market, the supply and demand elements of which determine the 'use' or 'non-use' of nature. Inherent to the market is its environmental ethic, that is, the extent of our recogni- tion of nature's rights to existence. The thesis of this article is that whilst environmental policy may possibly have a greater influence in the future, it is the environmental ethics of the market that will be deterministic to the balance of the tourism-environment relationship. Keywords: environmental ethics, environmental economics, sustainable tour- ism. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.