Ethical Issues in Vanuatu Tourism

This report identifies range of hospitality and tourism related issues and their ethical implications in Vanuatu. It discusses the role played by the Vanuatu government in resolving these issues and provides recommendations for overcoming such problems in future.

Running head: INTRODUCTION TO HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
INTRODUCTION TO HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Ethical issue in Vanuatu tourism................................................................................................2
Allocation of responsibilities for ethical issues identified.........................................................4
Role of Vanuatu government in resolving issues.......................................................................4
Recommendations for overcoming such issues in future...........................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The purpose of this report is to identify range of hospitality and tourism related issues
and their ethical implications. The economy of Vanuatu’s is mainly dominated by the tourism
sector as it contributes to near around 65% of Vanuatu’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and
employment. Cruise tourism has injected to about $34 million into Vanuatu economy in the
last year. Over the last few decades, tourism industry in Vanuatu’s have driven its economic
growth. Vanuatu’s tourism industry is one of the vital source of foreign exchange. However,
this provides a way by which this nation pays for its imports and attain self- sufficiency level
of which other small island nations are envious (Cheer, Reeves and Laing, 2015). Still there
are certain ethical problems in Vanuatu tourism that are discussed in this study. This study
also focuses on the role played by the Vanuatu government in resolving these issues.
Furthermore, recommendations for overcoming such problems in future are also provided in
this study
Ethical issue in Vanuatu tourism
Vanuatu has majorly emphasized on its tourism sector as a source of foreign exchange
and way to economic development. The growth rate of tourism sector in Vanuatu has been
quite strong in the last decade as the total number of tourist arrivals double as compared to
previous decade. This country possesses few features that also marks it as one of the
attractive destinations for the tourists. Vanuatu boasts striking array of cultural as well as
natural attractions, which in turn opens this nation to both varied niche markets and
mainstream tourists markets (Dornan and Cain 2015). The growth in Vanuatu’s tourism
sector has enhanced mainly due to increase in total number of cruise ships visiting this nation.
It has been evident from recent study that tourists visits this country more via cruise ships

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rather than by air. However, growth in Vanuatu’s cruise tourism is rapid as compared to that
in other nations.
While the tourism industry has been performing well in this country, foreign
domination of some segment of this industry as well as lack of few backward linkages have
constrained several opportunities regarding job creation and income generation (Klint et al.
2012). Even though the tourism sector in this county has been highly successful to generate
foreign investment, the development of this industry is still uneven partly due to challenge
created by geographic dispersion and few ethical issues. One of the main ethical issues is that
corruption in tourism industry has been depriving local people from the tourist money. Over
the last ten years, there has been less development in local region owing to corruption in its
tourism industry (Sharpley and Telfer 2014). An evidence of development in one of the
islands in Vanuatu over the past ten years is water system. The local people along with
tourists have been facing several problems as there is no electricity, gas, proper toilets and no
public health system in some region of this nation. However, the local people of few regions
of Vanuatu wonders where thousands of dollars from luxury liners usually end up. The prime
minister and few local people are of the opinion that the civil servants are corrupted for which
such issues occur.
Even though there has been rapid growth in the cruise tourism, it led to several
negative environmental as well as social effect in the industry. The adverse effect that the
local people have pointed out includes- overcrowding, cultural commodification,
demonstration impact, increase in drug- use and so on. Few researchers have found out that
there has been monopolisation of income which is generated by the cruise tourists. At present
P&O tour agent monopolise as well as control tours sold on boarding the ships that indirectly

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impacts where tourists spend their money. In the past few decades, the cruise tours were
mainly handled by tour operators of Ni Vanuatu but the passengers of P&O cruise have
complained over reliability of tour Vanuatu regarding offering of high service standard (Hall,
Scott and Gössling 2013). This in turn also resulted in P&O terminating its contract and
providing it to “adventures in Paradise”. In this case, P&O cruise have act ethically in this
case as they moves away from Ni- Vanuatu tour agent in order to provide better standard of
service to the tourists.
Allocation of responsibilities for ethical issues identified
The government of Vanuatu and The National Tourism Development Office (NTDO)
should be mainly responsible for rectifying the ethical issues that have been identified. These
two governing bodies should take the responsibility in order to promote as well as improve
tourism development in this country. In order to rectify corruption in this industry, these two
bodies must implement proper principles, policies and enterprise framework. In addition to
this, these two governing bodies must take the responsibility in introducing quality services
relating to tourism development. Moreover, they should also take the responsibility to assists
the tourism operators mainly Ni- Vanuatu tourism operators who are new to this sector in
order to tune their prospects of tourism into certain ventures and reduce any kind of unethical
practices (Smith 2015). Furthermore, the NTDO must also establish tourism accreditation
system for rectifying the identified ethical problems as it will provide opportunity to the
tourists and other local people to make confident as well as informed choice about quality of
product.
Role of Vanuatu government in resolving issues
The government of Vanuatu plays a significant role in the development of tourism
industry in this nation. The policymakers have been focusing on improving their tourism

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industry as it is the main backbone of the Vanuatu economy (Pratt and Harrison 2015). The
Vanuatu government has been undertaking several anti- corruption measures for resolving
several ethical issues in the tourism industry. These anti- corruption measures include-
 taking action on those individuals who are involved in corruption
 providing new training and education programs to the tour operators so that they do
not get involved in any kind of unethical practices
 Introducing anti- corruption policies and practices
 Adopting new workshops regarding anti – corruption policy
 They also plans for port to serve islanders and launch microfinance cooperative in
order to motivate small business (Smith 2015).
Recommendations for overcoming such issues in future
The recommendations are given to the government of Vanuatu for overcoming several
problems in future. These are discussed below-
 Regular monitoring as well as enforcing relating to environmental regulations as
needed. This practice will help the policymakers to identify and rectify problems in
future.
 Raising the awareness among the tourists about this nation so that they becomes
responsible visitors who respect environment, sensitive to culture and make proper
ethical choices (Klint et al. 2012). This increasing awareness will be specifically vital
for the tourists coming via cruise ship.
 This government of Vanuatu is also suggested to increase its environmental
sustainability despite assuming that all activities and practices are good. This in turn
will also facilitate them to have remedy for the ethical issues when they occur. For
example, cruise enterprise as well as Air Vanuatu must take into account providing of

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carbon offset scheme as option for passengers as money might move into protection
on islands (Lovelock and Lovelock 2013).
 Tourism which benefits less population is not considered as sustainable. However, it
is recommended that huge support in terms of investment is required mainly in
peripheral areas including few outer island locations, to assists large number of the
community members for maximizing economic returns from the tourism industry. As
a result, this will aid the policymakers of this country to overcome any kind of such
ethical problems in future (Trau 2012).
 Introduce new campaign for the Ni- Vanuatu in order to assure that they remember
what is vital for them regarding their wellbeing, culture, social well- being and
environmental integrity. However, this will result in reduction in unethical practices
and resolve ethical problems.
Conclusion
Over the past few decade, tourism sector in Vanuatu has been bringing huge range of
economic benefits such as – large revenue to government, direct as well as indirect
opportunities of employment and opportunities for the suppliers of different products and
services. It has been evident from the discussion that corruption has adversely affected the
tourism sector of this country. However, the government of Vanuatu has been implementing
numerous practices and anti- corruption policies for resolving ethical problems in tourism
industry. In addition to this, the Vanuatu government has also started to take action on those
individuals who are involved in corruption. In fact, the policymakers have also strategized to
monitor the activities or practices occurring in the tourism industry in order to identify the
people who are involved in corruption. The Vanuatu government is also making business
partnerships in order to attract more tourists in the nation and attain more economic benefits

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from this tourism industry. Moreover, NTDO also has been playing major role in resolving
ethical problems and improve the tourism sector of this nation.
References
Cheer, J.M., Reeves, K.J. and Laing, J.H., 2013. Tourism and traditional culture: Land diving
in Vanuatu. Annals of Tourism Research, 43, pp.435-455.
Dornan, M. and Cain, T., 2015. Tourism and economic diversification in Vanuatu. Retrieved
May, 20, p.2017.
Hall, C.M., Scott, D. and Gössling, S., 2013. The primacy of climate change for sustainable
international tourism. Sustainable Development, 21(2), pp.112-121.
Klint, L.M., Wong, E., Jiang, M., Delacy, T., Harrison, D. and Dominey-Howes, D., 2012.
Climate change adaptation in the Pacific Island tourism sector: analysing the policy
environment in Vanuatu. Current Issues in Tourism, 15(3), pp.247-274.
Klint, L.M., Jiang, M., Law, A., Delacy, T., Filep, S., Calgaro, E., Dominey-Howes, D. and
Harrison, D., 2012. Dive tourism in Luganville, Vanuatu: Shocks, stressors, and vulnerability
to climate change. Tourism in Marine Environments, 8(1-2), pp.91-109.
Lovelock, B. and Lovelock, K., 2013. The ethics of tourism: Critical and applied
perspectives. Routledge.

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Pratt, S. and Harrison, D. eds., 2015. Tourism in Pacific Islands: current issues and future
challenges (Vol. 48). Routledge.
Sharpley, R. and Telfer, D.J. eds., 2014. Tourism and development: concepts and issues (Vol.
63). Channel View Publications.
Smith, M.K., 2015. Issues in cultural tourism studies. Routledge.
Trau, A.M., 2012. Beyond pro-poor tourism:(re) interpreting tourism-based approaches to
poverty alleviation in Vanuatu. Tourism Planning & Development, 9(2), pp.149-164.