Legal and Ethical Aspects of the UNWTO's Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (1999)

The UNWTO's Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (GCET) was adopted in 1999 as an international legal act (in 10 articles), more precisely a set of ethical principles on which, as a response to all the negative impacts of tourism, modern tourism should be based in the conditions of economic, social and cultural globalization. Today, the significance of the principles of the Code for world tourism is stronger and more relevant than ever before. The Code establishes a frame of reference for the sustainable and socially responsible development of world tourism. The Code, however, does not solve all the current problems of a legal (application and implementation of the principles) and ethical (sustainable development and social responsibility in tourism) nature in a global society. The results of the work are interdisciplinary understandings of the need to strengthen the guidelines of the Code in seven different legal, economical and ethical directions.