RESOURCES
RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS
Author : | Elizabeth Ann Kruger |
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School/Work Place : | University of Pretoria, South Africa |
Contact : | elizabeth.kruger@up.ac.za |
Year : | 2015 |
Tourists are often depicted as irresponsible consumers, with mass tourism being linked to extensive consumerism in society (Sharpley, 2012; Singh, 2012)and tourists as consumers are part of the “culture-ideology of consumerism” (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2010:119). Tourism is said to be a good example of consumerism because it is an ‘induced want’ and an optional item to consume, usually for pleasure-seeking purposes. The rate at which tourism consumerism is growing, can be ascribed to tourism marketers telling people that they need it and that they have a ‘right’ to travel and tourism (Higgins-Desbiolles, 2010).Despite the critical view of tourists as hedonistic consumers, countermeasures are also increasingly guiding tourists toward self-regulated, responsible consumption (UNWTO, N.d.). It is stated that very few tourists intentionally abuse the destinations they are visiting and that many visitors are seeking to make environmentally and socially responsible choices (Hall, 2009). At the same time little evidence has been found that tourists are fundamentally transforming to the principles of responsible tourism consumption (Ballantyne, Packer & Falk, 2011; Sharpley, 2012; Wu, Huang, Liu & Law, 2013), with existing studies revealing unawareness of individual impacts (Pearce, 2011).