Ethics of Chinese & Western tourists in Hong Kong

•Implements a multidimensional ethics scale for five different scenarios.•Normative ethics of teleology is more lenient than deontology.•Soliciting a prostitute and queue cutting are the least ethical actions among the five scenarios.•Mainland Chinese visitors view more scenarios as more ethically acceptable.•Chinese tourists are less likely to engage in unethical behaviour on vacation than at home. The potential for tension between tourists and residents due to tourist behaviour is rising. In such environment, understanding tourists’ ethical judgments of different scenarios is important. This study asks tourists and residents to ethically evaluate five different scenarios, using a multidimensional ethics scale and rate the likelihood they are to engage in these scenarios while at home and on vacation. An intercept survey of 1827 questionnaires were collected from Hong Kong residents, Mainland Chinese and Western tourists. Teleological ethical theories may justify actions that are deemed ethically inappropriate by deontology or ethics of justice. Western tourists are more likely to engage in unethical behaviour on holidays than at home. For Mainland Chinese visitors, the opposite is true.