Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Responsible Tourism Guidelines (DEAT, 2002). The guidelines provided a
framework for the tourism industry to adopt more sustainable and responsible
management practices by safeguarding the social, natural and economic environ-
ments in which they operate. Recently the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) have provided a common platform for countries all
over the world to address key issues of poverty and inequality.The primary goal of
the MDGs is to halve the number of people living on less than one US$ by 2015.
The tourism industry, being highly labour-intensive and a primary source of
income in many developing and emerging countries, has been identified as a key
sector in meeting the MDGs. However, in order for the tourism industry to
achieve such positive outcomes, a responsible and sustainable tourism approach is
necessary.
The amount of attention that responsible, sustainable and related topics have
received has led to a host of definitions in the field. Whereas responsible, eco- and
sustainable tourism should not be used interchangeably, the approaches all have a
common objective of minimizing negative social, economic and environmental
impacts, whilst maximizing the positive effects of tourism development. Table 5.1
provides several definitions in this subject area, as well as highlighting the specific
focus each one of them has. For the purpose of this chapter the term
responsible
tourism management
(RTM) has been used to describe a certain management
approach, rather than a specific type of tourism. In investigating what is causing
the low levels of responsible tourism management in the industry, it was more
important to analyse general attitudes and challenges of managers, rather than
differentiating between the definitions. Thus:
Responsible tourism management (RTM) is defined as managing the
business in a way that benefits its local community, natural and business
environment and itself.
Corporate social responsibility in tourism
It is important to discuss responsible management practices in the context of the
broader Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) debate. RTM can be seen as a
form of CSR contextualized in a specific industry sector. CSR can be defined as
'
actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the company and
that which is required by law
' (McWilliams and Siegal, 2001, p117). The CSR
trend in both large and smaller corporations has risen dramatically in recent years.
Internationally, companies, to varying degrees, are being mandated by their
customers or legislation to operate in a transparent fashion, serve not only share-
holders' but stakeholders' needs and play a far more active role in addressing the
social ills around them. The tourism sector, despite being highly dependent on
natural and human capital, has been slow to react to this trend. Only 2 per cent of
tourism businesses globally are participating in responsible tourism or CSR initia-
tives such as the Global Compact and South African studies into the hotel and
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