Environmental Ethics for Tourism
Owing to the complexity of tourism, involving a variety of stakeholders, it is subsequently difficult to talk of a homogenous environmental ethic for this industry. However, in terms of establishing the framework for stakeholders’ interaction with the environment, government policy for tourism has a major influence. Referring to the development of contemporary mass international tourism, one of the first government policies was initiated by Spain’s General Franco in the 50s. Based upon an instrumental ethic, General Franco’s Plan Nacional de Estabilization of 1959, possessed an inherent policy of “crecimiento al cualquier precio” (growth at any price). Focused upon a desire for economic growth and modernization, the pursual of this policy was at the cost of environmental destruction, ultimately leading by the 90s to
a decline in tourist numbers to parts of Spain as the environment was perceived to have lost its quality.