Advancing the Sustainable Tourism Agenda Through Strategic CSR Perspectives
Camilleri M.A. (2013) Advancing the Sustainable Tourism Agenda through Strategic CSR perspectives. Tourism Planning and Development. 11 (1), 42-56. Taylor and Francis
29 Pages Posted: 2 Feb 2017
Date Written: October 31, 2013
Abstract
This paper links the corporate social responsibility (CSR) paradigms to the sustainability agenda. The objective is to sharpen the strategic base of responsible behaviour in tourism enterprises. The design follows a comprehensive literature review about sustainable tourism from a hospitality industry perspective. Theoretical underpinnings suggest that the tourism and hospitality industries are continuously witnessing changing attitudes on the part of both the consumers and the enterprises. This contribution provides some details about the sustainability agenda as it explains how it emerged following Brundtland's report. Afterwards, it identifies key contributors who raised the issue of sustainable tourism as well as CSR policies, including inter-governmental committees and non-governmental organisations. It is believed that synergistic and shared value approaches are relatively straightforward and uncomplicated. Therefore, such notions are more easily taken up by academics or by tourism and hospitality stakeholders. There is continuous discourse in many international fora, conferences, seminars and colloquia about sustainable tourism, responsible behaviour and the related subjects. However, the discussions are usually characterised by presentation of theories which define the concepts, rather than being practical workshops which identify the business case and how to trigger active participation in the tourism industry. Relevant literature indicates that value-driven approaches focus on improving tourism and hospitality business performance through effective and efficient practices in their workplace environments. This contribution suggests that long-term sustainability can be reached if industry practitioners successfully address their societal and community deficits.
Keywords: business, management, sustainability, strategy, tourism, corporate social responsibility, creating shared value
JEL Classification: M1, M14, M3, M38, Q56, Q58
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation