Resources

RESOURCES


RESOURCES: PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

Author : Candice Hunter & Kevin Mearns
School/Work Place : University of South Africa
Contact : mearnkf@unisa.ac.za
Year : 2016
The world is changing into a place where broader spectra of responsibilities are now being embraced. A significant realisation has grown throughout the world that the Earth’s natural resources are scarce. Industrialisation and economic growth has provided worldwide prosperity. The increasing evidence of negative impacts caused by climate change has given rise to persistent environmental concerns, particularly caused by the global reliance on fossil fuels and limited energy and water supplies (Gummer & Goldsmith, 2007). There is vast evidence of devastating effects that humans have had on the environment (Schmidt-Traub& Sears, 2005). Economic development has also resulted in both positive (emergence of middle classes, better water and electricity supply, better transport systems and education) and negative social impacts around the world (high levels of poverty, youth unemployment, shortages of housing and other social resources). Protests against these negative social issues have encouraged institutional and corporate efforts to address environmental and social concerns, resulting in more organised interventions and incentives for people, companies and governments to change their behaviours and actions that are creating negative social and environmental effects. However, there is still a continuing need to address the environmental and social changes as humans are dependent upon the natural environment and its resources to achieve human development goals. All the environmental and social problems will have a direct effect on every human being around the world unless steps are taken to mitigate and reverse negative environment impacts. It is unsustainable to continue to ‘practice as normal’ focussing only on economic gains. It is crucial to look after the environment and society through changes in behaviours, practices and activities. “Sustainable development had a profound influence on the way people now perceive themselves as an integrated part of the environment: people are increasingly aware that their activities have a significant impact on the environment (Mearns, 2012: 7851).” A strong call for the implementation of sustainable development and triple bottom line reporting has been made. A new focus on companies’ environmental and social impacts have grown in the corporate world. Corporate impropriety resulted in calls for corporate transparency and accountability, which has led to the rising demand for corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting and sustainable development (Freemantle, 2005; Erlandsson & Olinder, 2009).  The triple bottom line, was enforced within the corporate world through several avenues. An influential aspect that has practically forced companies to implement the triple bottom line reporting in South Africa is the development of the King Code III on corporate governance. According to the code, all JSE listed companies are required to comply with the latest King code, incorporating sustainable development into their business practices (King Committee on Governance, 2009). With the pressure placed on companies to enforce the triple bottom line within their business practices, this has challenged companies to create a balance of economic, social and environmental priorities.  As a consequence to implementation of sustainability practices, sustainability reporting has become an important phenomenon amongst corporations. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a focus on corporate governance, especially with regard to sustainable development and sustainability reporting, also known as triple bottom line reporting (Aras & Crowther, 2008). This has had an influence on business activities and the way in which businesses report their activities.

List of Articles
No. Subject Viewssort Date
334 Think Tank XIV Leadership at the Nexus: Exploring the Connection betw... file 11124 Jun 26, 2014

The development of sustainable and competitive tourism destinations is contingent upon many factors including the creation of inclusive policy (Pforr, 2006), the development and implementation of strategic plans (Jordan, Vogt, Kruger, and Gr...

Author: Whitney Knollenberg & Nancy Gard McGehee 

Year: 2014 

333 OPA award Using Tourism to Build Social Capital in Communities: ... file 11035 Nov 06, 2013

Despite considerable discussion about how tourism could or should contribute to sustainable destination development, there is little evidence that the practice of tourism planning or development has altered in any significant way in the last...

Author: Gianna Moscardo, Andrea Schurmann, Elena Konovalov & Nancy G. McGehee 

Year: 2013 

332 Think Tank IV Aboriginal Cultural Tourism and Sustainability: Socioc... file 11032 Oct 09, 2013

This paper describes a qualitative study, which investigated local residents' perceptions of the sociocultural impacts of tourism on the Manyallaluk community, an Australian Aboriginal community located near Katherine in the Northern Territo...

331 Think Tank XIII Assessing the Impact of Rural Tourism Development on t... file 10983 Nov 06, 2013

Past literature has posited that tourism is one of the fastest growing sectors and has been signified as an attractive investment proposition. Rural tourism sector has been actively promoted by the Malaysian government and currently, it is c...

Author: May-Chiun Lo, Vikneswaran Nair, Peter Songan & Helen Lee HuiHui 

Year: 2013 

330 Think Tank IV Integration of Theory and Practice in Hospitality Sust... file 10944 Oct 13, 2013

This brief paper describes a new educational model developed at Ecole hoteliere de Lausanne (EHL) to link theory and practice, or more specifically, coordinate learning opportunities between the classroom (Sustainable Tourism) and current pr...

Author: James Holleran 

Year: 2004 

329 Think Tank X Sustainable Tourism Networks file 10913 Oct 13, 2013

This study examines the existing pattern of stakeholder relationships representing major partners of sustainable tourism development. By utilizing a network analysis lens the study also helps us understand the impact of inter relationships ...

Author: Seldjan Timur 

Year: 2010 

328 Think Tank IX Courchevel, an outstanding alpine ski resort at a turn... file 10815 Oct 13, 2013

“Courchevel is first and foremost one among the founding elements of the huge touristic complex of les Trois Vallées in France. Linked to the neighbouring Allues and Belleville valleys by a 3,000 acres network area of regularly packed and ma...

Author: Daniel Tixier 

Year: 2009 

327 Think Tank XIII Sustainable Tourism in Kerala - Chances for Local Comm... file 10769 Nov 06, 2013

The Indian state Kerala is positioned by Kerala Tourism as a sustainable tourism destination for domestic and foreign markets (cf. Jean-Francois 2011). Indeed sustainable tourism projects take place and are conducted either by NGOs like Kaba...

Author: Tatjana Thimm 

Year: 2013 

326 Think Tank X Innovation of and in Informal Actor Network file 10711 Oct 13, 2013

How the informal sectors create and share innovation in gaining competition is very important in tourism development. Commonly, informal sectors are embedded in their routines and lack of innovation capacities. Based on the case of pedicab ...

Author: Maya Damayanti 

Year: 2010 

325 Think Tank VII Destination and Enterprise Management for a Tourism Fu... file 10690 Oct 13, 2013

A key element of a successful tourism industry is the ability to recognize and deal with change across a wide range of key factors and the way they interact. Key drivers of global change can be classified as Economic, Social, Political, Tec...

Author: Larry Dwyer, Deborah Edwards, Nina Mistilis, & Carolina Roman 

Year: 2007 

324 Think Tank VIII Responding to Climate Change in Australian Resort Hote... file 10657 Oct 13, 2013

Extensive infrastructure and client expectations of luxury will mean that their carbon footprint and water usage is likely to exceed significantly that of average urban households. Often located in coastal or riverine settings, they are vuln...

Author: Charles Arcodia & Chantal Dickson 

Year: 2008 

323 Think Tank X Sustainability: What Matters to Students, Educators, a... file 10625 Oct 13, 2013

As climate change gains global attention from events like the summit in Copenhagen held during December of 2009, the need for sustainable tourism is more important than ever; with comprehensive education in sustainability concepts and practi...

Author: Cynthia S. Deale & Nelson Barber 

Year: 2010 

322 OPA award Environmental Training and Measures at Scandic Hotels,... file 10622 Dec 01, 2013

Hotels are traditionally geared towards providing a high-level of comfort and entertainment, as well as a broad spectrum of services, often without giving much concern to associated environmental or socio-economic impacts. Hotel companies ty...

Author: Paulina Bohdanowicz, Branko Simanic & Ivo Martinac 

Year: 2004 

OPA: 2004 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

321 Think Tank VI Corporate Social Responsibility and Travel & Tourism B... file 10611 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 

320 Think Tank XII Micro-Mobility Patterns and Service Blueprints as Foun... file 10609 Nov 06, 2013

This paper proposes the use of micro-mobility patterns and service blueprints in visitor management planning. Using a nature-based conservation area and visitor attraction in Wellington, New Zealand, as a case study, micro-mobility patterns ...

Author: Julia Albrecht 

Year: 2012 

319 Think Tank X The Managing Local Tourism Master Class: Communicating... file 10575 Oct 13, 2013

The aim of this paper is to describe an action-based research project entitled the Management Local Tourism Master Class (MLTMC) and to discuss the merits of this extension tool in building sustainable tourism management practices across loc...

Author: Dianne Dredge, Emma-Jane Ford & Michelle Whitford 

Year: 2010 

OPA: 2010 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

318 OPA award Stakeholder involvement, culture and accountability in... file 10570 Oct 13, 2013

Following its historical rise and fall, America’s first industrialized polluted landscape garnered federal and local support to remedy its near destruction. Today, the Blackstone Valley is a pragmatic example of translating theory into pract...

Author: Robert Billington, Veronica Cadoppi & Natalie Carter 

Year: 2006 

OPA: 2006 Outstanding Paper Award Winner 

317 Think Tank X Cultural-Touristic Network Altenkirchen – Perspective ... file 10520 Oct 13, 2013

Altenkirchen is situated in Westerwald/Raiffeisen region of Germany (between the cities of Bonn, Cologne, Mainz and Wiesbaden) and in addition to the 7,000 city inhabitants includes 42 municipalities with a further 24,000 people. It is a ci...

Author: Sanja Zerlauth & Dietmar Wiegand 

Year: 2010 

316 Think Tank VII Environmentally Sustainable Practices of Victorian Tou... file 10426 Oct 13, 2013

Environmental sustainability has been a growing concern in our society for the past twenty years, and is a primary issue of many leaders of the tourism industry. In spite of the many efforts to encourage and/or enforce environmentally sound ...

Author: Sue Beeton, Sue Bergin-Seers & Christine Lee 

Year: 2007 

315 Think Tank V Ideas for A(u)ction: Tourism Risk Management file 10416 Dec 14, 2013

As a contribution to BEST Education Network ThinkTank V, Managing Riskand Crisis for Sustainable Tourism, the following paper has been prepared in two parts. The first part of the paper focuses on the idea that an appropriate model can be de...

Author: Scott K. Cunliffe 

Year: 2005 

OPA: Keynote Speech 

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