THE OVERLOOKED ISSUE IN TOURISM CODES OF ETHICS: MAKING MORAL PRINCIPLES EXPLICIT

This paper is part of a series of analyses dedicated to the ethics management in tourism, using theoretical tools of philosophical and applied ethics. It aims: (a) to clarify the meaning of 'practical' ethics in tourism, taking into account the challenges inherent in the field; (b) to examine ethics practical approaches in organisational contexts (with a focus on ethics management); c) to clarify the importance of codes of ethics at the organizational level, their typology and content (values, principles, moral norms); d) to propose a moral theoretical framework for grounding ethics in tourism on four fundamental principles (principle of human dignity, principle of integrity, principle of reciprocity, and principle of precaution); e) to analyse the content of the Global Code of Ethics in Tourism (GCET) in the light of these clarifications. The authors argue in favour of explicitly specifying moral values and principles in codes of ethics, as they play an essential role in building moral organisations, providing their ethical "content" and encouraging the effective practice of virtues by employees.