Animals, Tourism, And Values
The concern for animals’ well-being is on the rise around the world, in everything from food choices to their use in entertainment and even in travel decisions. However, most research into the concern for animals tends to look at the phenomenon on a case by case basis, and not as a more general concern that can apply across a range of situations. While personal values aren’t the same for everyone, and people even tend to have a “value hierarchy” within themselves. Still, there are “values theories” and this paper explores how one value theory, “universalism,” may be important to ecotourism. “Universalism” has been defined as having three components: a concern for people and nature, and a tolerance for nature and people that are different from ourselves.
In this paper, the authors propose that the definition of universalism should be expanded to include the valuing of animal welfare. They note that the animal welfare value is different from a concern for nature, which is more general, and that animal welfare has “the goal of reducing suffering and enhancing the well-being of animals as sentient beings.” Why is this important for tourism? Researchers have noted that there are “profound motivational differences” between wanting to preserve the natural environment and caring about animal welfare, and those differences have big implications for tourism policy and tourist behaviour. The authors here assert that people who hold animal welfare as a “guiding life principle” make different tourism decisions, and it affects their behaviour and perceptions of their experiences (and satisfaction with those experiences). For animal advocates, and others interested in ecotourism, the paper suggests that refining how we think about people’s values – including the distinction between concern for nature and concern for animals – can help us guide tourism policy in an animal-friendly direction more effectively.