Determinants of environmental management in the red sea hotels: Personal and organizational values and contextual variables

What motivates firms to adopt environmental management practices is one of the most significant aspects in the contemporary academic debate in which the review of the existing literature yields, with an obvious contextual bias toward developed world, contested theories and inconclusive findings. Providing a unique model that brings together the individual and organizational levels of analysis on firms' adoption of environmental management practices, this study aims to provide a new insight from the context of developing world. Data from 158 Red Sea hotels reveal two identifiable dimensions of environmental management-planning and organization, and operations-that can be explained as originating from different values. Whereas organizational altruism is a powerful predictor of both dimensions, managers' personal values and organizational competitive orientation are only relevant to environmental operations. The evidence also indicates that contextual variables such as chain affiliation, hotel star rating, and size are important to explain hotels' environmental management behaviors. © 2012 ICHRIE

Towards a Wider Adoption of Environmental Responsibility in the Hotel Sector

Hotels are an important sector in tourism. Though generally perceived as a smokeless sector, hotels actually interact with the environment particularly in terms of resource consumption. This article establishes a clearer link between the sector and sustainable development. It reveals the increasingly popular initiative to include environmental considerations in the operation of elite hotel chains and the barriers that may hamper a more prevalent practice of environmental responsibility among the small and medium size hotels. However, as hotel environmental responsibility ultimately contributes to the protection of natural beauty of destinations, therefore this article assumes an optimistic view believed essential when dealing with the issue. Several recommendations are made to encourage more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) participation in environmental responsibility

Responsibilities, recession and the tourism sector: perspectives on CSR among low-fares airlines during the economic downturn in the United Kingdom

publication-status: Publishedtypes: Article"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Current Issues in Tourism on 22 Jan 2011, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/ 10.1080/13683500.2010.544719”Responsibility has featured prominently in recent discussions about tourism governance. Nevertheless, research into corporate social responsibility (CSR) among travel and tourism businesses is at a relatively early stage. This paper reports on external stakeholders’ perceptions of CSR among low-fares airlines (LFAs) in peripheral regions of the United Kingdom in late 2008; that is, during the current global economic downturn. LFAs, their business plans and their ability to contribute towards sustainable development has been the source of much public discourse and media scrutiny in the last decade. This paper does not set out to reopen that debate per se. Rather it contributes to a deeper understanding of CSR in the tourism sector by arguing for a more nuanced approach to external stakeholders, one which is also informed by primary empirical research from qualitative sources, and which is conceptually informed by the latest thinking from other sectors of economic activity. Important inter-regional variations exist in external stakeholders’ perceptions and valorisations of CSR, they are context-specific, and they are not static as their responses to the recent downturn reveal.Economic and Social Research Counci

Destination Unknown? The Emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility for Sustainable Development of Tourism

This dissertation explores the nexus between sustainable tourism development and corporate social responsibility (CSR). It addresses the scope for CSR to promote sustainable tourism in an international development context. This objective was pursued by exploring three sub-questions: what tools have been used to stimulate social responsibility in tourism; how has ecotourism influenced social responsibility in tourism; and finally, how have various stakeholders approached CSR in tourism? These questions were investigated through case studies within three research cycles, and documented in six published, peer-reviewed articles. Using a qualitative and exploratory approach, the author finds tourism to be lagging behind other industries in assuming a responsibility to mitigate its environmental and social impacts. Existent voluntary performance schemes for tourism sustainability, as well as alternative forms of tourism (ecotourism) are reviewed in order to identify their contributions to developing CSR in tourism. A significant deficiency of existent tools is identified in their neglect to address social impacts, especially the ones emerging in the contemporary context of globalization and trade liberalization in tourism

Tourism and corporate social responsibility: a critical review and research agenda

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Tourism Management Perspectives. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Tourism Management Perspectives, Volume 6, April 2013, Pages 122–141. doi:10.1016/j.tmp.2013.02.001This paper presents a critical review of recent progress in research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in tourism management, and possible directions for future research. In comparison to a well established, empirically- grounded body of knowledge dealing with other sectors of economic activity, dedicated research on CSR in travel and tourism is at a relatively early stage. In the past decade, CSR has been the primary subject of a limited number of studies from a small academic community of practice. Studies have primarily focused on three macrolevel topic areas: implementation; the economic rationale for acting more responsibly; and the social relations of CSR. Interest in responsibility as an approach to tourism governance and management is nevertheless growing as several policy prescriptions and corporate vision statements reveal. For research to progress further and to match these ambitions, greater critical engagement with mainstream thinking on CSR is required as well as greater conceptual and methodological sophistication.Economic and Social Research Counci

Sustainable Development in the Hotel Industry

Sustainable Development is a holistic concept based on a simple principle. As outlined in the 1987 Brundtland report, the concept involves “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This report explains how an effective way to operationalize the concept of sustainable development in the corporate world is to apply what John Elkington called the “triple bottom line.”1 This strategy maintains its first focus on an operation’s profitability, but it also includes people and environment, as I explain in this report

Exploration of factors affecting adoption of biometric technology by five-star Egyptian hotel employees

There is no abstrac

A staff inducing programme for hotels in South Africa

Published ArticleThis paper discusses the development and enrichment of a theoretical framework for a staff induction programme for South Africa. Such a research project could add value to the hospitality industry in South Africa and further afield, by providing a solution to the challenges involved in the recruitment, development and retention of qualified and skilled hospitality employees. A literature review paved the way for the formulation of a generic four-stage staff induction programme. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with five representatives responsible for the staff induction programmes at five of the best companies to work for in South Africa, to contextualise this to the South African context. Personal interviews were then conducted with two representatives of two major hotel groups in order to contextualise the staff induction programme to the South African hospitality industry. This led to the proposal of a staff induction programme that consists of three stages, namely the anticipatory, encounter and adjustment phases. The implementation of this proposed staff induction programme for hotels in South Africa may act as a best practice in the development of new staff induction programmes, and may improve the effectiveness of current staff induction programmes. This may lead to better staff retention rates, reduction in absenteeism, a higher level of skills and productivity, as well as increased staff morale and motivation

Evaluating the business case for investment in the resilience of the tourism sector of small island developing states

Over the last decade, a number of disasters severely affected tourist destinations. At the same time, the management of disasters has shifted from a reactive, top-down approach to a more inclusive approach that seeks to proactively include the private sector in reducing the risk of disasters. Considering that a significant proportion of tourism occurs in the potentially hazardous coastal zones of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), private tourism sector stakeholders can – and maybe have to – play an active role in disaster risk reduction (DRR). Establishing the business merits associated with investment in disaster resilient measures would be necessary to support increased private sector DRR investment. This study therefore evaluated the business case for investment in the resilience of the tourism sector in SIDS. As such, it offers: 1) a greater understanding of the root causes of destination vulnerability and risk using a cross-regional, comparative case study approach; and 2) a qualitative evaluation of the business case for investment in the resilience of SIDS tourism. Semi-structured interviews with 80 private and public sector stakeholders in the Caribbean, Pacific and AIMS regions revealed that some private sector stakeholders already self-regulate based on individual evaluations of a variety of tangible and less tangible benefits. More research is needed to develop the economic and financial data that may possibly encourage greater private sector investment in DRR, as well as, create a supportive and enabling national economic context for resilient tourism investment.This Background Paper was commissioned and financially supported (award no. OBMO#51870) by the Global Assessment Report team led by Andrew Maskrey based at the Secretariat of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Geneva, Switzerland