Eco-hypocrisy and inauthenticity: Criticisms and confessions of the eco-conscious tourist/traveller

Mucha Mkono

Annals of Tourism Research, 2020, vol. 84, issue C

Abstract: Labels such as the ‘green tourist’, ‘ecotourist’, and the ‘ethical tourist’ are used to claim moral capital and distinguish this tourist from the alternative, viewed as a threat to the destination. However, these tourist groups open themselves up to feelings and criticisms of hypocrisy when they fail to live up to the moral standards they expressly espouse. This hypocrisy may be conceptualised as a form of inauthenticity—not being existentially true to one's own standards. The present netnographic study uses Graham, Meindl, Koleva, Iyer, and Johnson's (2015) typology of moral hypocrisy to illustrate the feelings of inauthenticity and dissonance, and the social condemnation the environmentally conscious tourist/traveller contends with. Findings point to the inescapability of moral weakness, and the inevitability of moral frustration.

Keywords: Eco-hypocrisy; Ethical consumption; Eco-conscious; Existential authenticity; Hypocrisy, celebrity activism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738320301110
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:84:y:2020:i:c:s0160738320301110

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2020.102967

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of Tourism Research is currently edited by John Tribe

More articles in Annals of Tourism Research from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().