Tourism - an ethical issue: market research report

This document reports the findings of a telephone based market research survey of 2,000 members of the general public, which asked what consideration they give to ethical issues when booking their holidays, and in what ways they would be willing to change their behaviour.

The main findings of the survey were:

• when choosing a holiday tourists' three main criteria are weather, cost and good facilities. But tourists do show concern about ethical policies and environmental considerations. There is little brand loyalty: the bottom-scoring criterion for choosing a holiday was having used the company before
• tourists are interested in receiving information on ‘local customs and appropriate dress and behaviour’ and on ‘ways to support the local economy and meet the local people’
• most think that tour operators and travel agents have the prime responsibility to provide the information they require on a wide range of issues - both before they go on holiday and once they are there
• over half would be willing to pay more for their overseas holiday if they were guaranteed that the ‘money goes towards preservation of the local environment, workers in the destinations are guaranteed good wages and working conditions, or money goes to support a local charity’. Of those who were willing to pay more, the average increase they would accept was 5%
• nearly half of those questioned said they would be more likely to go with a ‘company that had a written code to guarantee good working conditions, protect the environment and support local charities in the tourist destination’
• the research also tested the assumption that there are particular groups who will be more aware of the ethical issues involved in tourism. The assumption proved founded: the highest scoring groups were those who ‘regularly buy fair trade or use an ethical bank or investment fund’, are ‘members of an environmental, development or human rights group’ or ‘have been on a trip to a developing country, or plan to do so in the next few years.’

Tearfund use these results to call on tourism businesses to improve their ethical credentials, on the basis that demand is there and responsible practice now equals market advantage. [adapted form authors]