Abstract
Boycotting has long been acclaimed as an exemplary nonviolent tactic utilized in the pursuit of social justice. Guided by justice and political consumerism literature and using critical media discourse analysis, this study sought to investigate the portrayal of social justice in tourists' discourses surrounding travel boycott campaigns against Myanmar. While online narratives exhibit genuine concern for justice and morality, this research elucidates variations in the expression and application of justice, thereby emphasizing the intricate moral decision-making faced by tourists. Overall, this paper illustrates how social justice discourses may be usurped by tourists as a means to blunt justice narratives, calling for a new ‘moral turn’ in research that is more sensitive yet critical towards social justice in politicized tourism consumption.
•Tourism boycotts as mechanisms for social justice mobilization.•Notions of justice underlie and inform travel boycott campaigns against Myanmar.•Tourists' moral decision-making shapes justice narratives in boycotts.•Social justice narratives across different scales with diverse meanings are explored.•Calls for a new ‘moral turn’ in research on social justice in tourism.