Towards a welfare focus for tourism research

Analysis of the welfare – physical, economic, social, etc. – of all those involved in tourism (tourists, employees, local residents, animals and the environment in which it takes place) is proposed as a means of illuminating tourism's nature and impacts. The paper argues that the welfare of one set of participants may be compromised by efforts to increase that of others and illustrates this with an examination of the contrasting welfare of tourists and non-tourists; the welfare of tourism employees, especially those who migrate to take up work, versus that of other residents; and the (dis)benefits that accrue to animals and nature when included in the tourism product.