To Touch or Not to Touch: Navigating the Ethical and Monetary Dilemma in Giant Panda Tourism

Yulei Guo () and David Fennell
Additional contact information
Yulei Guo: Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, 1375# Panda Avenue, Chenghua District, Chengdu 610081, China
David Fennell: Department of Geography & Tourism Studies, Brock University, Niagara Region, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines, ON L2S 3A1, Canada

Tourism and Hospitality, 2024, vol. 5, issue 4, 1-18

Abstract: Tourists consistently demonstrate the need to touch wildlife, although policies often deny these experiences because of the psychological and physiological impacts on animals. However, philosophers contend that humans can learn to empathize with animals by feeling their way into the plight of animals through touch. Facing this dilemma, the paper asks if human touch can be ethically experienced in tourist interactions with animals by employing animal health warning labels. Using the case of “holding a panda” at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding, Sichuan, China, the study investigates this dilemma through Johann Gottfried Herder’s philosophy on empathy and touch against the no-touch policies. A survey containing four scenarios shows that the use of payment can serve as a more effective tool than ethical appeal in reducing people’s decision to hold a panda through its inclusion of additional factors in the decision process. However, ethical touch building on animal health warning labels demands spaces for mutual respect, conservation awareness, and the recognition of health risks through a direct confrontation of the established emotional and sensual aesthetic appeal of cuteness between visitors and the panda. It is found that a combined use of payment and ethical appeal is necessary to restructure visitors’ willingness to hold a panda.

Keywords: ethical touch; willingness to pay; panda tourism; Johann Gottfried Herder; giant panda; animal health warning labels (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Z3 Z30 Z31 Z32 Z33 Z38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/5/4/73/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-5768/5/4/73/ (text/html)

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:gam:jtourh:v:5:y:2024:i:4:p:73-1326:d:1534984

Access Statistics for this article

Tourism and Hospitality is currently edited by Mr. Philip Li

More articles in Tourism and Hospitality from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().