The Application of Collective Ethics Charters: The Case of French Adventure Tour-Operators

In recent years the tourism industry has seen the emergence of associations whose purpose is to encourage firms to behave in a more ethical fashion. In particular, ATR (Agir Pour un Tourisme Responsable: Action for responsible tourism) and ATES (Association pour le Tourisme Equitable et Solidaire: Association for equitable and interdependent tourism) represent an ever-larger number of tour operators who seek an increased commitment to sustainable tourism. Given this concern, and basing our research on the perceptions of adventure-tour operators top managers, we propose to explore to what extent the principles enunciated in these collective ethics charters have actually been applied within their organizations and "on the ground". An analysis of the observations we have collected shows that the application of these charters is still unsatisfactory on many levels, for reasons that are as much structural as they are economic or human. This leads to recommendations which we believe are likely to promote a better application of these charters in future.