Ethical and Responsible Tourism: Managing Sustainability in Local Tourism Destinations

explains the methods and practices used to manage the environmental impact of tourism on local communities and destinations.

The three core themes of the book – destination management, environmental and social aspects of ethical sustainable development and business impacts – are discussed across both topic and case study chapters, alongside explanatory editorial analysis with all chapters clearly signposted and interlinked. The case studies address specific and practical examples from a global range of examples including sites in Australia, Central America, Europe Union countries, Japan, North America and South America.

Used as a core textbook, the linking of theory in the topic chapters, and practice gained through case studies, alongside further reading and editorial commentary, Ethical and Responsible Tourism provides a detailed and comprehensive learning experience. Specific case studies can be used as standalone examples as part of a case teaching approach, and the editorial and discussion elements are designed to be suitable for those simply seeking a concise overview, such as tourism professionals or potential investors in sustainable tourism projects.

This book will be essential reading for students, researchers and practitioners of tourism, environmental and sustainability studies.

Marko Košcak held the position of Assistant Professor from 2014 to 2019 and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Maribor, Faculty of Tourism Brežice, Slovenia. He studied in Ljubljana (Slovenia), Birmingham (UK), Vienna (Austria) and in 1999 completed his PhD on the thesis “Transformation of Rural areas along the Slovene –Croatian border” at the Faculty of Arts –Department of Geography, University of Ljubljana. His academic interests are in the field of Sustainable and Community Tourism, Geography of Tourism and Destination Management. These topics are his research work interest fields in which he also lectures to students. His professional work career started on different activities in the field of Rural Development in Slovenia and abroad since 1986, when he commenced implementation of Integrated Rural Development Projects on local-community level. He was a Project Manager of the Dolenjska and Bela krajina regional sustainable tourism initiative Heritage Trails in SE Slovenia from 1996 to 2009, under the umbrella of the Chamber of Commerce Novo mesto. Since 1986 he was also a Regular Consultant with the Ministry of Agriculture, and employed there from 1999 to 2001 as an Advisor to the Slovenian government in the Sector for Structural policy and Rural development. In the past 30 years, he has worked as an Advisor to UNDP LoSD and sustainable tourism initiative in S-E Balkan countries of Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bosnia, Kosovo and Macedonia. He was also involved in the number of sustainable tourism projects and development initiatives and worked on these in Europe and Asia. He is the Founding Member of the Slovenian Rural Development Network, which is part of the European Network “PREPARE”. His professional expertise and experiences are primarily in the following fields: Sustainable and Responsible Community Development, Rural and Eco Tourism, Economic Diversification on farms, Product Development, Sustainable Heritage Tourism, Regional and Rural Development and Cross-border Cooperation.

has been actively collaborating with Marko Košcak for a number of years in the area of sustainable and local tourism development. He studied at UK universities in Warwick, Edinburgh and Stirling. His current academic interests are in the fields of Sustainable and Responsible Local Tourism, Financing of Local Tourism/Destination Management organisations and the creation of tourism credit co-operatives. His professional work career began in Higher Education Management connected to training and resources application. From 1990 to 2001 he was working with Scottish Financial Enterprise, the University of Stirling, Heriot-Watt University and the European Commission DG23 on small business financing at a micro level as well as the financing of tourism enterprises in Central and Eastern European transition economies. This included monitoring EU projects in Czech Republic, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Poland and Slovenia. From 1996 to 2001, he was Secretary-General of the Association of European Regional Financial Centres. From 1992 to 2004, he was a part-time Professor in small business financing/small financial market strategy at universities in Ireland, Montenegro and Serbia, and at the same time an Expert Advisor to Dun & Bradstreet Country Risk Services on Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. In 2004, he returned to the University of Stirling as the Director of the programme for continuing professional development in the Scottish finance and investment sector, as well as teaching on the MSc Banking and Finance Programme. Since retiring in 2011, he has taught part-time at MSc and MBA level as a Visiting/part-time Professor and also carried out advisory work for Co-operatives UK. He has published widely on tourism issues and expects to continue the latter.