The article in question dwells upon one of the major ethical dilemmas in hospitality business (tourism, to be more precise), i.e. sustainability. Donyadide (2010) notes that tourism is one of the most rapidly developing industries worldwide and sometimes business people face such ethical dilemma as cultural sustainability.
The author makes a major focus on sustainability in terms of local people’s lives. The researcher notes that now business people have to be thoughtful and make sure their business does not intervene in local people’s lives too much. The researcher claims that people understand the importance of ethical conduct and make decisions in accordance with global ethical codes.
Admittedly, hospitality industry has been diversified and now people’s demands go beyond the conventional 3 s (sun, sand, sea) tourism (Donyadide, 2010). Heritage tourism comes into play. Lots of destinations have been developed recently. Thus, such ethical dilemma as sustainability should be considered by managers of the hospitality sector.
Notably, Lynn (2012) states that there was certain attention to this issue in hospitality literature during 2009 and 2010 years. This trend suggests that educators, researchers and managers do pay attention to cultural sustainability.
Now it is important to understand that heritage tourism should become an industry that reveals peculiarities of people’s life to other people. Heritage tourism should not become a mere exploitation of natural sources and corruption of local people’s life styles (Reynolds, 2000).
One will come to such conclusions employing any of major ethical theories, though there can be exceptions in terms of Virtue ethical theory that presupposes following personal ethical judgments (Nergiz et al., 2011). Shacklock et al. (2011) claim that people’s decisions are often affected by the ethical environment of people involved in the process of decision making.
Clearly, ethical climate of any company has to be appropriate and one of the most effective ways to ensure companies can have proper ethical climate is to educate future hospitality managers accordingly (Nergiz et al., 2011). Future hospitality professionals should share values which correspond to global ethical approach.
Thus, while making decisions, hospitality managers should understand that they have no right to change people’s habitual life styles and make them change their ways or especially leave their homes (Donyadide, 2010). Future heritage specialists should also understand that they have no right to promote their own lifestyles as they should respect other cultures.
More so, these professionals should try to preserve world cultural diversity. They should understand that they should seek for local people’s cooperation. Hospitality managers should understand that local people are also a part of the heritage, that tourists want to see. Notably, ethical decisions become profitable when it comes to heritage tourism.
On balance, it is possible to note that sustainability of cultural diversity is one of the ethical dilemmas hospitality managers face nowadays and will continue facing. To avoid unethical decisions made by these professionals, it is important to reconsider curriculum of future hospitality managers.
These students should be aware of major ethical approaches and major ethical dilemmas they will inevitably face. Future hospitality professionals should also be shown possible ways to solve ethical dilemmas, including the issue concerning sustainability. These professionals will come up with ethical solutions to existing problems making one of the most rapidly developing industries adhere to global ethical values.
Reference List
Donyadide, A. (2010). Ethics in Tourism. European Journal of Social Sciences, 17(3), 426-433.
Lynn, C. (2012). Review of hospitality ethics research in 2009 and 2010. Journal of Hotel Business Management, 1(1), 1-6.
Nergiz, H.G., Kozak, M.A. & Balta, S. (2011). Ethical approaches and their application in hotel managers’ decision making. An International Multidisciplinary Journal of Tourism, 6(1), 84-104.
Reynolds, P. (2000). Profit and principles: Business ethics in hotel management companies in Asia. Australian Journal of Hospitality Management, 7(1), 1-13.
Shacklock, A., Manning, M. & Hort, L. (2011). Ethical climate type, self-efficacy, and capacity to deliver ethical outcomes in public sector human resource management. Journal of New Business Ideas & Trends, 9(2), 34-49.