Sustainability, Tourism and China

Sustainability is often defined as a managing process companies use to manage their financial, social and environmental risks, obligations and opportunities. The three impacts are often referred as profits, people and planet. Several practises what help organisations move along the path from laggards to leaders are stakeholder engagement, environmental management systems and life cycle analysis. Corporate social responsibility, also known as CSR, refers to business practises involving initiatives that benefit society. It not only will benefit the people and planet, but also the business itself as companies can use business skills to do social goods. 

Importance of CSR principles

The Corporate Social Responsibility is based on several principles which makes a company as active according to CSR as possible. The five important principles are 1) legal compliance principle, 2) adherence to customary international laws principle, 3) respecting related stakeholders principle, 4) transparency principle, 5) respect for human principle. Together with these five principles, there are three major dimensions for social responsibility, to wit: the economic, social and environmental dimension (SSIF, 2010). 

Think environmentally or financially?

The term of economic dimension respective to social responsibility does not refer to profitability. Alternatively, it refers to commitment to ethical practices inside companies, like corporate governance, preventing bribery and corruption, protecting consumers, and ethical investment. The social dimension consists of participating in achieving the welfare of the society, and in improving and caring for the affairs of its employees. This should positively reflect on increasing a company’s productivity, developing the technical abilities, and providing professional and employment security, besides health and social care. The dimension which is defined as the companies obligation towards covering the environmental effects is known as the environmental dimension. These environmental effects result from its operations and products, eliminating wastes, achieving maximum efficiency and productivity depending on available resources, and decreasing practices which may negatively affect the country and next generations’ enjoyment of resources.

Compatibility tourism and CSR 

For the past twenty or more years, sustainable development has been at the forefront of many government agendas. Concluded has that sustainability should be adopted as the way forward to preserve ecosystems and biodiversity. Tourism has been put forth as a way to gain income and provide access to market opportunities for small and medium size enterprises, especially in low income countries. Dodds and Joppe (2005) mentioned that sustainable tourism can help overcome many of the negative impacts associated with tourism development. Based on their research it is clear that guidelines alone are not strong enough to overcome the short-term profit motive of many operators, governments and destinations. 

Will sustainable tourism be possible?

The way the tourism sector is able to be sustainable will be according the drafted guidelines. The guidelines are divided by the dimensions for social responsibility. The economic dimension will be sustainable by supporting the local community, employing local residents, monitoring economic contribution to the local environment. The social dimension can be found sustainable by stakeholders and other parties by have good labour conditions, have migrant workers, have impact on local communities and services, have involvement in local community and have for example good food safety. The third dimension, environmental, can be sustainable by sourcing standards for cleaning products according health and safety, sourcing standards for food and beverages, managing plastic use, managing the energy consumption and managing the water consumption. A mix of all the guidelines for being sustainable will help businesses be (even) more sustainable (GRI, n.d.). 

Sustainability hospitality industry China

With the rise of China’s middle class and the growing potential for international travel, China’s travel and tourism industry will continue to expand for many years in the upcoming future. To provide sufficient accommodations for the growing number of visitors, China’s hotel industry is growing nationwide. Cornell University (2016) believes that the nation’s planners are aware that the increased number of hotels can have a disadvantageous impact on China’s already stressed environmental resources. Therefore Chinese hotels can adopt the sustainability standards already promulgated by their government, what can help positioning the hotel industry for future growth. By implementing best practices in environmental sustainability measures in each stage of the hotel planning and development process, China’s hotels can become a good standard. According WTTC (n.d.) the most common indicators hotels reported for being sustainable are community assessment, diversity, programmes to avoid serious diseases and skills development and performance reviews. The most uncommon indicators mentioned are water recycling, wage rations versus local minimum wage and weight of transported hazardous waste. 

In response to the sustainability in the tourism sector and China, a lot of businesses can be more sustainable, components are supporting the local community (economically), having good labour conditions (socially) and managing plastic use (environmentally). Will the hospitality and tourism industry be sustainable? Are hotels willing to change and make it more sustainable? What will China do in order to make the hospitality industry more sustainable?

References

Cornell University (2016). Environmental Implications of Hotel Growth in China: Integrating Sustainability with Hotel Development. [Retrieved from http://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=chrreports on the 13th of October 2016]

Dodds, R. & Joppe, M. (2005). CSR in the Tourism Industry? The Status of and Potential for Certification, Codes of Conduct and Guidelines. [Retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEXPCOMNET/Resources/CSR_in_tourism_2005.pdf on the 13th of October]

GRI (n.d.). 40 – Hotels, Restaurants and Leisure, and Tourism Services. [Retrieved from https://www.globalreporting.org/resourcelibrary/40-Hotels.pdf on the 13th of October 2016]

SSIF (2010). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Principles, Dimensions and Requirements. [Retrieved from http://www.ssif.gov.jo/EN/EN/CorporateSocialResponsibility/CSRGuide/CorporateSocialResponsibilityCSRPrinciples/tabid/233/Default.aspx on the 13th of October]

WTTC (n.d.). Environmental, Social & Governance Reporting in Travel & Tourism: Trends, Outlook and Guidance. [Retrieved from https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/policy-research/esg-main-report---web.pdf on the 13th of October 2016]