Although the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been introduced in 1979, the service industry has just recently begun to adopt CSR programmes. This study seeks to identify, compare and investigate the differences of CSR programmes in Phuket, Thailand as conducted by the Holiday Inn Phuket, which is managed by a large international hotel operator, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), and the Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket, which is managed by, a small national hotel operator, the Centara Hotels and Resorts Group (CHRG).
Economic, social and environmental indicators have been selected from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 3.1 guidelines and are used for the comparison of the CSR programmes in this study. IHG has guidelines, frameworks and systems at the corporate level for the individual properties to use and follow. Holiday Inn Phuket contributed to the community through donations to establish Happy Home, a children’s shelter, which is now converted to a learning centre due to changes in the Thai legislation. Holiday Inn Phuket has efforts to reduce energy consumption and promote recycling but is more focused on social initiatives, such as donations to schools and to Happy Home. CHRG engages external vendors for frameworks and guidelines to develop its CSR programmes. Centara Grand has environmental initiatives that reduce energy and water consumption. Centara Grand donates to the community and is involved in community projects together with other hotels under the Centara brand. The majority of the employees in both hotels are Thais but there are more expatriates in Centara Grand’s senior management than Holiday Inn Phuket’s. Both IHG and CHRG provide a high level of flexibility for individual properties to conduct their own initiatives, especially for social initiatives.BUSINES
