Tourism and Animal Welfare

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2008

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to discuss the issues of animal rights in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry, and to suggest ethical guidelines for the operation of animal-based attractions. Design/methodology/approach -The issue is presented through an extensive literature review, in addition to current examples and demonstrations from the industry. Findings -For years, the H&T industry has been heavily criticized for its inconsiderate and even cruel use of animals for entertainment purposes. However, there are clear indications, presented in this paper, of a growing tendency to adopt approaches that emphasize animal welfare and even animal rights.

Burns, G.L. 2004 The Host Community and Wildlife Tourism. In Wildlife Tourism: Impacts, management and Planning. Karen Higginbottom (ed). Gold Coast: Common Ground Publishing. Pp 125-144.

─Abstract ─ Animals are exploited for food, scientific researches, cosmetic testings, healing, assisting, entertainment, etc. The entertainment part usually includes animal suffering and pain. Circuses, dolphinariums and zoos are some places where people have fun, while animals do not. This kind of exploitation increases day by day. Ecotourism is a form of tourism that corresponds to animal rights in theory. The tourism field should seek answers for moral questions about equity, equality, rights, justice and values for sustainable and responsible tourism. This paper aims to explore the ways in which animal rights are violated for tourism, and intends to raise awareness about this obvious but not recognised problem by drawing attention to the specific examples of forms of animal exploitation in the world as well as in Turkey.

Animals are exploited for food, scientific researches, cosmetic testings, healing, assisting, entertainment, etc. The entertainment part usually includes animal suffering and pain. Circuses, dolphinariums and zoos are some places where people have fun, while animals do not. This kind of exploitation increases day by day. Ecotourism is a form of tourism that corresponds to animal rights in theory. The tourism field should seek answers for moral questions about equity, equality, rights, justice and values for sustainable and responsible tourism. This paper aims to explore the ways in which animal rights are violated for tourism, and intends to raise awareness about this obvious but not recognised problem by drawing attention to the specific examples of forms of animal exploitation in the world as well as in Turkey.

This research studied dolphin watching in Lovina, North Bali, Indonesia in the theoretical context of quadruple bottomline sustainability and the prism of sustainability to investigate the biological, social, economic and managerial elements of the sustainability of the industry. This industry depends on predictable access to coastal dolphins, particularly dwarf spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris roseiventris). Dolphin watching tourism at Lovina began in the late 1980s when local artisanal fishers formed self-regulating cooperatives. Up to 179 dedicated traditional fishing vessels (jukungs) are available to take passengers to watch the cetaceans that are predictably found 3-4 km from the shore. An average of 34.5 tour boats from four dolphin associations operated for up to three hours each morning in Lovina during my data collection period (2007 to 2009), with up to about 100 tour boats per day searching for the animals during the high tourist visitation season. A school of dol...

2004

She received her Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Auckland. Her research interests include issues of backpacker travel; tourism entrepreneurship; discourse analysis of tourist experiences; and tourism representations as constructed and interpreted in the context of various social conditions (gender, class, ethnicity, etc.).

Tourism accounts for 9% of global GDP and comprises 1.1 billion tourist arrivals per annum. Visits to wildlife tourist attractions (WTAs) may account for 20–40% of global tourism, but no studies have audited the diversity of WTAs and their impacts on the conservation status and welfare of subject animals. We scored these impacts for 24 types of WTA, visited by 3.6–6 million tourists per year, and compared our scores to tourists’ feedback on TripAdvisor. Six WTA types (impacting 1,500–13,000 individual animals) had net positive conservation/welfare impacts, but 14 (120,000–340,000 individuals) had negative conservation impacts and 18 (230,000–550,000 individuals) had negative welfare impacts. Despite these figures only 7.8% of all tourist feedback on these WTAs was negative due to conservation/welfare concerns. We demonstrate that WTAs have substantial negative effects that are unrecognised by the majority of tourists, suggesting an urgent need for tourist education and regulation of WTAs worldwide.

–The paper is an empirical study examining the tangible and intangible culture of rural tourism with a focus on rural transformation from daily local into commercial behaviour due to presence of tourism activities. It explores the process of commercialization of tangible and intangible culture. The case studies of Brayut and Pentingsari rural tourism village are studied through observation and interviews of physical and non physical transformation with community members and the rural tourism manager. Both villages are the unique growing tourist village in Yogyakarta, but Brayut has a potential asset of maintained condition traditional Javanese house in whereas Pentingsari has an attractive natural of green village with the local cultural heritage. The qualitative empirical research study was applied to explore the transformation of cultural meaning by the locals before and after commercialization process. Firstly, the study reviewed the original tangible and intangible culture before transformation. Secondly, changes in cultural functions and meaning are analyzed in the current situation caused by its transforming into commercial activities. By examining the comparison of tangible and intangible culture in the commercializing process is built to understand the relationships between the two and the quality of its transformation.