The environment-tourism nexus: the influence of market ethics

Society is at a critical juncture in its relationship with the natural environment, a relationship in which tourism has growing significance. Yet, twenty years after the Brundtland Report, environmental policy has to date had little influence upon the workings of the tourism market, the supply and demand elements of which determine the ‘use’ or ‘non-use’ of nature. Inherent to the market is its environmental ethic, that is, the extent of our recognition of nature’s rights to existence. The thesis of this article is that whilst environmental policy may possibly have a greater influence in the future, it is the environmental ethics of the market that will be deterministic to the balance of the tourism-environment relationship.