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RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Menno Houtstra
School/Work Place : ECEAT International, Netherlands
Contact : m.houtstra@eceat-projects.org
Year : 2006

The integration of sustainability within the domain of tourism has recently made considerable progress. For instance, in the UK and the Netherlands, the most important federations of tour operators, the FTO and the ANVR, have introduced obligatory minimum standards to contribute to sustainability. In fact, most tourism companies seem now to accept that they have corporate responsibility for the integration of sustainability into their practices. The UN-WTO has recently identified 15 goals for member states that should be adopted as policy orientation to reach sustainability in tourism. Nevertheless, not all stakeholders in tourism are ready to accept their exact roles in this process. For example, the European representation of the hospitality sector (HOTREC) has had until now an active policy to avoid environmental restrictions upon their hotels and restaurants. Furthermore, if sustainability principles are applied in the tourism sector there is a broad tendency to focus on minimising environmental impact rather than maximising the contribution to sustainable development. Finally, this environmental focus seems to be exported to the tourism sector outside the EU as main aspect of sustainable tourism. This orientation has been heavily criticised by NGO’s such as the International Ecotourism Society and the French GRET. So are we, considering the fact that there is a general willingness to take responsibility, on the right track or not?

In this article it is noted that there is hesitation to take full responsibility for sustainability in tourism and there is confusion on what should be the focus of responsible tourism management. The current trend to address to corporate responsibility of individual tourism companies need to be complemented by a strong approach of tourism sectors as a whole. There is a need of a better insight on what is the exact relation between the effects of their actions, responsibilities and roles for sustainable development. First, the different tourism sectors should agree on a definition of what is exactly the relative pressure that their activities have on the capacity of the region (in this case tourism destination) to develop in a sustainable way. Secondly, the sectors need an agreement on a fair assignment of roles and responsibilities to enlarge the capacity of the region for sustainable development. The tourism sectors need to know what the priorities are in order to invest effectively their scarce resources.


List of Articles
No. Subject Views Date
11 Think Tank VI The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: CSR, Film and Tourism.... file 7741 Oct 13, 2013

This paper reports on an element of an ongoing research project undertaken since 1999 in relation to the effects of film-induced tourism on a small community based in North Yorkshire, England, namely Goathland.  Goathland is better known to ...

Author: Sue Beeton 

Year: 2006 

OPA: 2006 Runner Up 

10 Think Tank VI Hilton Environmental Reporting as a Tool of Corporate ... file 7933 Oct 13, 2013

This paper reports on the history, criteria and procedures within Hilton Environmental Reporting, a computerized reporting tool created by Addsystems for Hilton International. The development and implementation process of the upgraded versi...

Author: Paulina Bohdanowicz 

Year: 2006 

9 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Employees in Susta... file 3721 Oct 13, 2013

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has developed significantly over the last decade and has taken on a myriad of meanings. For many companies, it is a philosophy that helps guide their actions in the external environment. E...

Author: Margaret Deery & Leo Jago 

Year: 2006 

8 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility in the Museum Sector a... file 5587 Oct 13, 2013

Out of a growing concern about the erosion of social infrastructure has come an increase in pressure on business to take up more of the responsibility in meeting community needs (Centre for Corporate Public Affairs, 2000; Loza & Ogilvie...

Author: Deborah Edwards 

Year: 2006 

» Think Tank VI Sustainable tourist accommodation management: The role... file 6844 Oct 13, 2013

The integration of sustainability within the domain of tourism has recently made considerable progress. For instance, in the UK and the Netherlands, the most important federations of tour operators, the FTO and the ANVR, have introduced obli...

Author: Menno Houtstra 

Year: 2006 

6 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Marine Tourism Org... file 5821 Oct 13, 2013

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become an important issue for some governments but the tourism industry appears to be slow in adopting CSR strategies. By focusing on CSR, we argue that the implementation of CSR audits could help t...

Author: Ya-Ting Huang, David Botterill & Eleri Jones 

Year: 2006 

5 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility in the Catalan hospita... file 75518 Oct 13, 2013

The practices of CSR have attracted the attention of the investigators, who have prepared a great diversity of theories and the international organisms, which have done recommendations, so that the companies have added them in their strategi...

Author: Ramon Palau 

Year: 2006 

4 Think Tank VI Testing Clarkson’s Typical Corporate and Stakeholder I... file 7850 Oct 13, 2013

In today’s world of growing concern over the social and environmental effect of tourism, the responsibility for the future of our society is moving from simply relying on our political leaders and interest groups towards the concept that cor...

Author: Catrina Papaleo & Sue Beeton 

Year: 2006 

3 Think Tank VI Ethical Issues in Collaboration in the Aviation Industry file 39915 Oct 13, 2013

The aviation industry is a critical element of any tourism system, and has several secondary effects – a source of employment and foreign exchange earnings. A ‘national carrier’ is also a symbol of the country, a source of pride amongst the ...

Author: Ravi Ravinder 

Year: 2006 

2 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Travel & Tourism B... file 5477 Oct 13, 2013

This paper discusses some economic, social, and environmental “hard issues” for the travel and tourism (T&T) industry with the aim of shedding some light on little discussed aspects of industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) with ...

Author: David Stipanuk 

Year: 2006 

1 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility or Government Interven... file 9265 Oct 13, 2013

Implicit in notions of sustainable development is an holistic triple bottom line approach that seeks to preserve essential ecological processes, protect human heritage and biodiversity and foster inter and intra-generational equity whilst r...

Author: David Wood & Jack Carlsen 

Year: 2006 

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