Adoption of Sustainability Practice in Tourism and Hospitality Industry

ALTERNATE EXAM
ASSESSMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SECTION A.....................................................................................................................................3
1...................................................................................................................................................3
2...................................................................................................................................................4
3...................................................................................................................................................5
Section B..........................................................................................................................................6
1 Adoption of Sustainability practice in tourism and hospitality industry was limited over past
thirty year.....................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

SECTION A
1.
The first article that has been selected is relevant to the environment and its management and the
role that it plays in increasing the competitive advantages and the business performance of the
industry by authors Pereira-Moliner, Font, Tarí, Molina-Azorin, Lopez-Gamero & Pertusa-
Ortega (2015). The authors have highlighted in the research paper the influence of the pro
activity in the environmental measures on the cost aspect, the competitive advantage that it
generates and the double relationship that exists between such pro activity in the environmental
measures and the business performance aspect. The population that was taken into consideration
by the authors’ included all 3 stars to 5 star hotels based in Spain where total of 350 hotels were
included. These were included based in the category of their environmental pro activity and
associated performance levels. The authors examined the differences between these different
classified groups of hotels and ultimately it was concluded that the there are mainly two types of
environmental behaviours i.e. pro active and reactive. Further, the results showed that those
hotels who were inclined towards the adoption and implemented pro active approach were able
to generate better results in both the aspects. They were able to develop better competitive
advantages in the market and the cost incurred was also significantly lower ultimately leading to
a much more improved performance levels. Overall, the hotels that were performing better and
were at top in the industry were those who had developed a pro active approach towards
environmental concerns rather a reactive approach. It was concluded by the analysis of the hotels
that the hotels that were more developed were larger and belonged to a higher category
possessed better environmental management systems. The availability of more resources was
identified as one of the reasons and the enhanced environmental capability was also attributed to
this aspect only. Further the study involved utilisation of an environmental pro activity scale that
was used as reference by the hotel managers to measure the benchmarks that have been
developed. These were then compared to the actual practices of their hotels thus helping in the
evaluation of the current environmental trends and then implementing them in the hotels.
The research paper identified four major approaches or systems using which the pro activity of
the hotel towards the environment could be measured effectively. These four systems are
operative system, information systems, strategic systems and technical systems. These systems
collectively help in increasing the innovation aspect and also assist in developing a more detailed
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approach towards the measurement and the implementation of the environmental pro activity.
The study also depicted that the environmental pro activity and the performance was doubly
associated and hence contribute in the generation of various insights into the relationship
between these variables.
Thus overall it can be said that the entire research paper was instrumental in analysing the
importance that environmental pro activity has not only on the nature and goodwill of the
company but also the monetary benefits that a hotel is able to achieve. It also analysed the
relationship that exists between the environmental pro activity and the impact it has on the
competitive advantage as well as business performance.
2.
The second article that has been selected is published by authors, Guix, Font & Bonilla-Priego
Maria (2019). The major purpose with which this research paper has been presented is with the
aim to examine and evaluate the choices that are being made hotel industry regarding the
preparation of sustainability reports. The paper examines what are the bases on which decisions
are being made regarding what is to be included, who are they accountable to etc. The entire
process is referred to as materiality assessment of the hotel industry. The research paper has been
based on the results that were obtained by the conducting of semi- structured interviews from 8
sustainability managers working in the hotels. These hotels of which sustainability managers
were selected belonged to the list of world’s 50 largest hotel groups. They were selected to
understand and explore the manner in which materiality is used, the barriers that arise in its
uptake and the manner in which the selected experts from the eight hotels assessed the general
i.e. industry wide application of the materiality aspect.
The results that were obtained from the semi- structured interviews that were conducted included
the evaluation of their criteria of materiality, their decision making etc. It was ascertained that
sustainability managers are very evasive when they are disclosing or speaking about the
materiality criteria that they use, the process of decision making that they employ, the
aggregation and integration of the feedback received from the stakeholders and the reporting
process is also limited. Further the research and study that was conducted also highlighted that
the sustainability managers are extremely disempowered and have a very limited access to small
portions or quotients of resources, knowledge, time and skills that are necessary to apply and
conduct the materiality assessment. The experts that were referred externally also confirm the
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