Flexible ethics across space and place: A study of tourists’ ethical food consumption and the tourism industry’s response

FUNDER

BES Pump Priming Fund (Coventry University)

VALUE

Approx £3,960

COLLABORATORS

Jordon Lazell

Dr. Carmela Bosangit

Professor Marylyn Carrigan

Dr. Solon Magrizos

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

This study aims to examine the flexible nature of ethical consumption by understanding how food habits change across space and place.

The study focuses on tourists’ consumption of food playing particular attention to changes in habits in comparison with everyday consumer behaviour as well as the response to ethical trends by businesses catering to the tourism industry. In order to research these aims the following research questions are set out:

1) Do ethical consumption identities change with consumption spaces?

2) To what extent is ethical consumption on holiday influenced by everyday behaviour?

3) To what extent do the travel industries support ethical behaviour of their customers?

4) How has the travel industry responded to trends in ethical consumption?

RESEARCH IMPACT

This research seeks to generate impact by delivering an industry report as well as a number of conference presentations and academic journal papers.

The practitioner report will be disseminated to the English, Welsh and Scottish tourist board and will address a critical knowledge gap the flexibility of consumer ethics and how industry can respond to such changes. Giving an insight into the variation in consumer behaviour will aid industry in understanding consumer’s ethical concerns within different contexts. The project will also make a key contribution in understanding the role of food in tourism experiences as well as how consumers perform ethical consumption through a focus on their everyday practices. 

This study is exploratory and is designed to be the basis of a larger scale project. The findings have the potential to be transferred into an international context beyond the UK.