How moral disengagement links to destination marketing organisations’ moral muteness in their sustainability communications

Abstract

If destination marketing organisations (DMOs) are to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, they have a moral responsibility to encourage the development of more sustainable tourism, to promote this to consumers and engage them to behave more sustainably. However, we know little about how these DMOs frame the sustainability discourses of their destinations or how they urge potential consumers to act. We conducted a content and discourse analysis of six European Arctic DMO consumer websites. The findings reveal examples of euphemistic labelling and using morally neutral language to conceal unsustainable activity. There is a sustainability communication discourse in what can be interpreted as moral muteness. Moral muteness helps us to interpret how DMOs downplay the negative impacts of tourism and promote low-effort pro-environmental behaviour to provide a narrative that allows the clients to morally disengage. This article contributes to the call for discussion on the ethics of sustainable tourism and the need to overcome an innately economic growth-friendly tourism science.