Tourism, ethics, and consumer politics: synthesis and critical research agenda

How do tourism choices become expressions of ethical judgement and political action, and under what conditions do such choices reduce or produce harm? This editorial introduces the special issue on ethical and political consumerism in tourism and proposes a research agenda for tourism studies. The articles are synthesised through four themes: environmental responsibility and the limits of ethical intention, boycotts, refusal, and political contestation, digital activism and platform politics and place, emotion, identity, and belonging. These themes demonstrate that ethical and political consumerism cannot be reduced to responsible choice, pro-environmental intention, or individual preference. Instead, ethical action in tourism is shaped by personal, social, organisational, technological, political, and institutional conditions. Building on this premise, the editorial draws on the special issue and wider scholarship to examine how tourism choices become moral and political claims, why boycotts are accepted or rejected, and whose capacity to act ethically is enabled or constrained. Finally, the proposed research agenda calls for further inquiry into non-consumption, buycotts, platform-mediated activism, organisational responsibility, resident participation, recreation-based conservation, animal welfare, and unequal capacities for ethical action.