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The UNWTO asserts that “through the direct, spontaneous and non-mediatized contacts it engenders between men and women of different cultures and lifestyles, tourism represents a vital force for peace and a factor of friendship and understanding among the peoples of the world” (UNWTO, 2001). The concept of “hospitality” even more clearly denotes a moral principle (Derrida, 2000; Lashley and Morrison, 2000). However, the ethicality of both these activities is not uncontroversial, as tourism, besides driving international friendship, is also associated with ecologically or socially unsustainable developments; hospitality as a moral act toward a visitor without expectation of recompense has become differentiated from conditioned or transactional hospitality.
Our increasing but understudied desire to travel the world (Oskam, 2020b) has spurred an overconsumption that contributes to climate change (Holden, 2017; Dogru et al., 2019), alienation of resident communities (Harvey, 2012; Colomb and Novy, 2017; Milano et al., 2019; Oskam, 2020a), food waste (De Visser-Amundson, 2020; Filimonau and Delysia, 2019), excessive water consumption (Garcia et al., 2022), labor exploitation (Baum et al., 2020) and social inequality (Kim et al., 2016; Lashley, 2022). Growing attention in academic studies and in professional circles for these issues seems to indicate that tourism and hospitality are not generally seen as intrinsically beneficial to mankind. If there was any doubt about the perceived harmfulness of the industry with its growth rate prior to pandemic, evidence was provided by multiple articles advocating that the 2020 COVID standstill be used for a radical change or “reset” of tourism (Brouder, 2020; Gössling et al., 2020; Gössling and Schweiggart, 2022; Hall et al., 2020; Niewiadomski, 2020; Prideaux et al., 2020; Sigala, 2020).
Besides an evident growth of the problems themselves, with the example of climate change symptoms manifesting themselves with increasing frequency around the world, and a greater awareness among scholars and practitioners, the attention to sustainable...