Tourism Concern publishes report on corporate responsibility

Tourism Concern, the campaign charity for ethical and fairly traded tourism, has published a report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) in the tourism industry.

The publication, Corporate Futures: social responsibility in the tourism industry, explains why the adoption of corporate social responsiblity in tourism is imperative for business and for destination communities, gives examples of good practice and makes recommendations to operators and other tourism businesses.

In the report, Angela Kalisch, Co-ordinator of Tourism Concern’s International Fair Trade in Tourism Network and author of Corporate Futures, explains that CSR is based on the premise that sustainability cannot be achieved without corporate acceptance of responsibility to society at large as well as to shareholders. She says: “A significant number of corporations in other industries have begun to rise to the challenge of CSR…the tourism industry, however, while making some headway in addressing environmental management, have lagged behind in implementing CSR.”

Corporate Futures states that whilst tourism can be a significant contributor to economic growth and human development, it can also work against the interests of local people and the environment: especially in Third World destinations. These communities are often overwhelmed by powerful corporate intervention causing irreversible damage to culture and environment. This has a ripple effect reaching across the entire tourism industry.

In the forward to Corporate Futures, Hugh Somerville, Head of Sustainable Business Unit at British Airways wrote: “The history of the tourism industry has been riddled with examples of bad practice, inadequate infrastructure, exploitation of those communities receiving visitors and lack of consideration for cultures, people and the environment…. However, I am also convinced that the opposite holds: that an opportunity is opening up for the industry to make a huge positive contribution.”

Corporate Futures highlights the increasing demand for ethical and fairly traded products in the non-tourism industry (fair trade products increased in value by 57% in 2000 over 1999) and that ethical companies in the UK outperformed those without an ethical code of practice by two to three times.

In the ethical tourism market there is a growing demand by holiday-makers for ‘fairly traded’ tourism based on the environmental, social and economic priorities of local communities. A survey by Mintel on ‘What makes an enjoyable holiday’ found that 27% of respondents stated their holiday was more enjoyable if booked with a company with good ethical practices. Research studies on tourism behaviour (ABTA, Tearfund & Tourism Concern) show “consumers are willing to pay more for holidays that benefit workers with ethical labour conditions in the destination.”

Corporate Futures states: “The demand by this significant segment of consumers for greater CSR is an ideal opportunity for the UK tourism industry to capture a growing market and to refine its emerging work on sustainable tourism within the framework of CSR….The aim is to spur the tourism industry at all levels to whole-heartedly embrace and rise to this challenge of Corporate Social Responsibility and its practical application now that the gauntlet has been formally thrown in to the business arena.”

Copies of the publication are available from Tourism Concern, Tel. 020 7753 3330. Please mention you read this information on TravelMole.

** A debate on CSR is being held by Tourism Concern, ABTA and The Tourism Society, Thursday 9 May at 6pm, Kingsway Hall Hotel, Covent Garden. The debate will launch Corporate Futures and provide a forum to discuss the opportunities and obstacles to CSR in the tourism industry. Tickets for the debate are available from The Tourism Society, Tel. 020 7488 9148. Please mention you read this information on TravelMole.