Ethical Risk Assessment of the tourism sector published

The fourth volume in the era-paper series, now published under the title “Tourism: An Ethical Risk Assessment”, focuses on precisely these climate-damaging emissions. The authors demonstrate how CO₂ emissions, as a core problem, affect large parts of the sector and threaten its very existence. In contrast, industry stakeholders themselves are confronted with challenges that are more piecemeal in nature and can, for the most part, only be addressed locally within the destinations. This structure of risks is a distinctive feature of the tourism sector.

Whilst, on the one hand, the tourism industry needs an intact natural environment, reliable snow conditions and beaches safe from flooding to ensure its economic foundations remain secure in the long term, it simultaneously benefits from a thriving aviation sector and is even regarded as a driving force behind it. “The product of travel is significantly and directly shaped by the changes caused by climate change,” said project lead Dr Miriam Putz. “This problem – being a contributing factor to the environmentally damaging developments that pose a serious risk to the business model – is another characteristic of the tourism industry.”

In 2020, however, a socio-ethical assessment of the tourism sector is not possible without taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the industry. Coming off the back of many years of continuous growth, the sector experienced a dramatic slump. Many businesses found themselves in severe economic difficulties. The medium- and long-term economic consequences are currently almost impossible to estimate due to the many unknowns. The socio-ethical consequences also remain unclear. It is indeed conceivable that the pandemic could act as a driver for greater sustainability in tourism. In the governance analysis, however, we demonstrate that we consider the likelihood of structural change – including changes to business models – to be very low. Nevertheless, concrete potential solutions and recommendations for action towards more sustainable tourism can be derived from the analysis.

The era paper ‘Tourism: An Ethical Risk Assessment’ is available as a free PDF download. The publication forms part of the Ethical Risk Assessment (era) project, in which the Foundation analyses value chains across different sectors. The analysis is guided by the questions of which economic, political and civil society actors are involved in the complex value creation processes, what role each plays, and how they can work together to minimise the sector’s socio-ethical risks. Previous analyses in this series have covered electronics recycling, the cocoa industry and the fisheries sector.