Writing Assignment help on : SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS OF TOURISM

ABSTRACT

Sustainability in the business has become an essential thing for the achievement of the long term goals of the organizations. Sustainability in the operations is required by every organization whether it is in tourism industry or not. Sustainable tourism is nothing but an effort which is made by the tourism companies to affect the local environment of the company positively. The impact of the business activities on the society and local environment should be as low as possible. This paper talks about the tourism business and the efforts which it makes for attaining the sustainability in its operations. The tourism companies make many plans, programs, practices to achieve sustainability. These practices may include the efforts of providing better health and education to the community of the business, providing the opportunity of employment for the local people etc. The goal of sustainable tourism is giving positive experience to the local people about the company. Tourism industry involves many industries in it. The main industries which come under tourism industry are travel agencies and food business, hospitality, hotels etc. Further in this report we would be discussing the plans and practices adopted by the tourism companies for the sustainability achievement. How the companies can manage the sustainability practices will also be discussed later in this report. We are focusing on the travel agencies and food businesses within the tourism industry.

INTRODUCTION

Tourism industry is different from other business sectors. It is a mixture of various industries like airlines, hospitality, Entertainment, restaurant meals, park services, recreational vehicles, souvenirs and gifts, resort development, safaris etc. Tourism industry is growing rapidly all around the world. There is also another side of the industry which is creating a big problem against the industry. With the rapid growth of the tourism sector, the industry is recognizing undesirable social and environmental impact. These undesirable impacts have become a threat for the sustainability of the industry. To solve the problems of sustainability a proper management of tourism operations is required. There are many methods and techniques available which can be used for the sustainable operations of tourism. We would be analyzing all the aspects of sustainable tourism in this report further (Presbury, R & Edwards, D 2010).

We have selected travel agencies and food businesses within the industry. Travel agencies and food business apply many techniques for attaining the sustainability in their operations. These techniques mainly include protection of water, protection of air and other things.

With the help of sustainable operations many tourism companies of travel and food business have got several benefits. They became able to save more than 30 percent of energy and waste stream; also more than 20 percent of the consumption has been saved. Sustainable operations are not a typical science it just needs the management of the operations so that an organization’s affect on the environment and society can be minimized. With the help of sustainable operations the company enhances its revenue and tries to minimize the risk of the business (Sustainable tourism online n.d.).

WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE TOURISM?

Sustainability is the model of development which aims to the satisfaction of the requirement of the society. If the organization is exploiting the resources available to it for the development then this kind of development is not going to sustain for long time. These resources mainly include natural, cultural, and social resources. If organization takes care of these resources today rather than destroying them it can become a key success factor for the organization in future. If we talk about travel agencies and food business we find that there are mainly three factors of sustainability: environment, economic and social. We can describe the three factors with the help of figure given below:

Environment:

Taking environmental factors into our consideration we find that these factors refer to the impact of hotels property on the environment around the hotels. The environment around the hotels is the natural areas and we need to focus on them that we are not damaging the natural resources. For achieving the sustainable development organizations are required to protect the natural environment around them. While cooking food companies uses many materials which can affect the natural environment e.g. water is a very important source for food business and companies are required to utilize the availability of the water. They should not destroy or pollute water while cooking food.

Social:

Social factors are those factors which refer to the development of the community in which the organization is operating. To get the sustainable operations an organization can do many things for the local community for example exploring the methods to improve the living conditions of the people in community, development of the infrastructure of the communities in which the people of the organization reside. A developed community of the tourism company helps in the sustainability of the tourism business.

While talking about social factor of the travel agencies and food businesses we find that these companies bring people of different societies together. In doing so they should ensure that they are creating a good culture among them. Food businesses can involve themselves in the activities like providing food for poor people etc. It will help in the sustainability development of food business.

Economic:

Economic factors are also equally important for the sustainability of the tourism business. The company must have good economic condition to provide better facilities and services to the customers. Also the customers need to have the required amount of money to pay for the services they received. Good economic condition is essential not only for the sustainability of the tourism business but also for the sustainability of other business (Cayuga n.d.).

While analyzing the economic factors of the travel agencies and food businesses we find that many times consumers are not able to afford the high prices of travelling. In this scenario travel agencies can make other programs for the consumers like excluding the hotels and other facilities for those customers who are unable to pay high prices of costly hotels. Similarly, in food business there could be a range of meals and recipes according to the consumers demand.

PLANNING FOR SUSTAINABILITY

A better business planning is required for the sustainable development of the tourism business. For a sustainable business the things required are given below:

• A SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunity and Threats) of the organization is required.
• Identification of the critical success factors of the tourism business.
• Development of a long term goal of the company.
• Then developing the strategic objectives of the vision.
• Now, development of a strategy to achieve the objectives of the business.
• Installation of a system for the evaluation of the performance of the business activities.
• Review of the performance and then improvement.

Considering Travel agencies and food businesses we find that these companies have much strength on which they can make their business plan. For example travel agencies have many destinations available in the world and they can make many travelling programs according to their classification of consumers. Similarly, food businesses have strength of preparing food for all type of consumers. They can prepare Chinese, Mughalai, Thai, Continental etc. Consumers of different countries like food of different taste as well.

Cooperative research center for the sustainable tourism has developed many tools for the planning of sustainable tourism operations. This research center provides the information to the companies so that they can develop their business with proper business planning, financing, investment and regulatory compliance. A range of best practices and tools are provided to develop the sustainable operations (Sustainable Tourism n.d.).

SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES

Since the competition in the business is continuously increasing and complexity of the business is also getting typical the tourism organizations are required to ensure the sustainability of their business for the long term purpose. Sustainability practices applied by the organizations are not only done for the economic wellness of the organization but also it takes care of the society and environment around it. If the sustainable practices are implemented successfully it helps the organization in the maturity phase of its business cycle. There are some criteria identified by the sustainable tourism research center for the development of sustainable operations given below:

• Strategic planning which includes formal planning, clear objectives and performance monitoring.
• Management of finances which include access to the financial data, record keeping, budgeting, targets and measurement of the outcomes.
• Knowledge about the market i.e. experience in the industry and market intelligence.
• Management of human resources which include employee relationship, training and development, performance and reward management.
• Focus on the quality and customers keeping the industry standards in mind.
• Management of external affairs and networking which include government support industry associations etc.
• Leadership management which include governance structure, hierarchy etc (Presbury, R & Edwards, D 2010).

A travel agency and food business organization also gets the benefits of the implementation of social and environmental practices. The benefits provided by the social and environmental practices are in term of saving of the operational cost, leverage marketing, comparative advantage and support to the corporate social responsibility. Environmental practices have been focused by the organizations since last decade but still there are some problems in the implementation of these practices. The main problems which have been faced by the organizations in the implementation of environmental practices are lack of the demand of the customers, huge cost of implementation, labour – intensive nature of becoming certified, lack of support from the government and industry and the technicality of the information forum.

Not only the implementation of sustainability practices is important but also the evaluation of these practices important as well. By evaluating the performance of the sustainability practices an organization becomes able to create benchmarking of the sustainability. With the help of the sustainability benchmarking helps the managers in measuring the economic, environmental and social performances and also its impact on the success of the business over a period of time (Adventures 2012).

SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT

While completing the strategic tasks of the business a company of tourism industry is required to ensure that the operations which are taking place in company are not harming the society and environment around it. As we discussed earlier that a tourism company involves many sectors in it like hotels and restaurants, there are chances that the company unknowingly harms the environment which is not good for the sustainability of the business. We can discuss all these factors through the examples given below:

• Wastewater management: Tourism Company needs to focus on the surroundings of it. The company is required to make sure that the water which leaves from the properties of the company like hotels and restaurants are not polluting the ecosystem of the surroundings.
• Energy Usage: Use of energy is another important issue for the sustainability of the business. Companies should make sure that they are utilizing the energy available to them perfectly. This energy could be electricity, fuel etc (Sustaining Tourism 2012).
• Water Usage: Water is the most precious resource for any organization; it does not matter whether the company is from tourism industry or from some other industry. Since tourism company is involved in those services which uses water like in hotels, swimming pools are there therefore the company should ensure that water is utilized at the highest possible level.
• Solid waste reduction: A tourism company uses many things which are solid and non – recyclable, while using these items company should make sure that it is not wasting it.
• Natural and Native Plant Landscaping: A company has always natural resources around it like air, water, soil etc, these resources should not get polluted due to the operations of the business.
• Responsible Consumption: Here consumption means purchase of only those products which can provide value to the company and are according to the philosophy of the company.
• Highlighting local culture and flavor: Company should assure that the properties of the organization are incorporating the cultural element of the local community in its daily operations.
• Certification: A tourism company can also work keeping in mind that it wants to achieve the highest levels of certification (Sustaining Tourism 2012).

EXAMPLES

We can better understand the above mentioned practices by giving the examples of travel and food businesses companies. There are many travel agencies in the world which programmed for sustainability and got the success. Some examples from Australia are given below:

1. The Esplanade Hotel Fremantle has a policy of “Living a cleaner Dream” which takes care of the environment of the hotel.
2. Novotel Langley Perth is another company which took the initiatives of saving water and energy.
3. Company named ‘All Seasons Kalgoorlie’ participated in the programs which were initiated for the saving of water and energy.
4. Most successful example is of ‘Cullen Wines’. This became the first winery in Australia which made its air travel 100 percent carbon neutral.

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The community within and outside of the organization plays an important role for the development of sustainable operations of the tourism and hospitality industry. There is requirement of making strategy for the development of the community around the company. A Travel agency and food company can categorize its community in two groups: immediate community i.e. the community of people of organization and surrounding community i.e. the locality in which organization operates. In the immediate community of the company, it can offer following things to achieve the sustainability:

• Education: Company should make sure that it is providing better opportunities of education for the people who are involved in the day to day activities of the organization. There are employees who want to study further and enhance their knowledge base; company can help them in this effort.
• Health: Health is another important factor for the sustainability development. Company should focus on the safety and health of the people of the organization. Especially for food business health is the most important issue as today the people are becoming more health conscious and hence the food companies need to ensure that the food that they are providing is healthy as well as tasty.
• Training and Development: In today’s competitive world companies are required to change their working methodologies many times and to deal with these changing circumstances workers are required having knowledge (Cayuga n.d.). This knowledge can be achieved by training and development programs provided by the company.

Company can also allocate certain percentage of its revenue for the development of the community in which it operates i.e. surrounding community. For a travel agency surrounding community would be very big as it operates in two or more than two countries. So external community for travel agencies is big but it can take care of its internal community i.e. staff. For food business both the external and internal community is important. It can have following programs for surrounding community:

• Company should make sure that the surrounding ecosystem is not harmed by its operational activities. Like in cooking food smoke should not pollute the air or wastage of the vegetables should be thrown properly.
• Company can help in the development of green and sustainable community.
• Similarly as we discussed for the immediate community, the company can take care of the health and education of the surrounding community. It should involve the cultural elements in its operations (Cayuga n.d.).

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

In conclusion we can say that sustainability has become the first priority of every business today. There are many programs and practices that companies use and implement for the development of sustainability in the operations. For achieving sustainability in its operations a tourism company needs to plan its business systematically. The tourism company first needs to plan its business, its strategies, investment and financing. It should also take care of the regulatory compliance. The company also needs to focus on its product and service as to get the sustainability first requirement is of being competitive. The company can include new things in its services or in its processes of delivering the services. Here innovation comes in role. Tourism Company needs to innovate how it can make its services different from its competitors (Adventures 2012).

Apart from above efforts, marketing of the services is also important. With the help of marketing the company will become able to create awareness among the people. To get the sustainability in its operations performance of the employees plays a big role. To get the standard performance from the employees’ performance management is required. And obviously as we discussed above that the company needs to take care of the resources available. Water, air, electricity, trees; these are those natural resources which are very essential for the development of any organization. Organizations ensure that they are not harming the natural resources. The community should get focus from the company. Only a developed community, both within the company and outside the company, can make the company able to get sustainable operations.

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