Sustainable Practices in the Hospitality Industry

This assignment analyzes the implementation of sustainable practices within a hypothetical hotel. It examines the hotel's commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR), exploring its efforts to minimize environmental impact while considering social and economic factors. The analysis highlights the importance of balancing tourism operations with environmental preservation and community well-being. The goal is to demonstrate how the hotel strives to achieve sustainable growth and become a recognized leader in responsible tourism practices.

Running head: SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS AND DESTINATIONS
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Executive Summary
Corporate social responsibility is an important aspect of any business organisation and every
company must adhere to the ethical and other norms of the guidelines of the CSR if the
organisation wishes to expand with everyone in the society while maintaining a balance with the
environment and making sure that the environment is protected. A sustainable development is
something that must be achieved if the treasures of our world are to be passed on to the future
generations. The current paper takes the case study of the Taj Mahal Palace hotel of India and
looks into its various projects and ways that they use to achieve sustainable ecotourism and
contribute in conserving the environment.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
CSR and the Taj Mahal Hotel and communicating the stakeholders..............................................4
CSR policies of Taj Hotel in social aspects.....................................................................................5
Environmental sustainability...........................................................................................................7
Economic sustainability aspects of the hotel...................................................................................8
Awards and market position............................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Tourism is one of the world’s fastest growing industries. In many developing countries, it
is the prime source of foreign currency inflow and employment. Sustainable tourism refers to the
processes and ways that develops the tourism industry of a country while maintaining a balance
in the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of the industry. Sustainable tourism
plays an important role in conserving the biodiversity of a country. The prime purpose of
sustainable tourism is to generate employment, income and conserve local ecosystem while
minimalising the impact on local environment and culture so that those could be made available
to the future generations (Kaur, 2016). Sustainable tourism enhances the positive impacts of the
tourism industry on biodiversity as well as reducing poverty, thus effectively promoting overall
sustainable development of the country. The revenues that are generated by the tourism are often
used in the protection and conservation of the biodiversity and making sure that the natural
habitat is not altered. Sustainable tourism also acts as an awareness raising program that
advocates changing behaviour that would result in environmental development.
The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel is a five-star hotel in Colaba, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
The hotel is considered to be the flagship property among the Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces. In
2017, the hotel became the first building in the country to have intellectual property rights on its
architectural design (Shah, 2014). The Taj Mahal has won numerous national and international
awards for their services and performance in the hospitality sector and the group as a whole is
considered to be one of the finest luxury hotel chains in the world, which only burdens them with
more responsibility to take care of the environment.

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CSR and the Taj Mahal Hotel and communicating the stakeholders
The Taj group of hotels understand that the activities of the hotels have significant impact
on the local communities where the hotels are situated. The group has very explicit policies that
advocated caring for the local communities. The brand’s slogan “We sincerely care for you” is
an ideology that is adhered to in every activity of the hotel and also is believed by every
employee of the hotel.
The Taj has a number of stakeholders that the hotel has to serve, which include everyone
from the customers, the employees and the shareholders. The stakeholders are notified about the
CSR activities, the key projects and the impact s they have on the society and the environment
through the annual reports, Taj web platforms and other relevant ways (Kaur, 2016).
The Taj Mahal Palace has been internationally recognised for their CSR activities and the
proposed new projects that are to be launched and undertaken over the next few years. These
projects are expected to set new benchmarks across the planet for global sustainability and social
responsibility.
Implementation of the CSR policies is a commitment of an organization to fulfill their
corporate social responsibilities. In the context of Hotel Taj, the CSR responsibilities are based
on their legacy in order to giving back to the society. This organization is associated with the
Tata group to bring improvement in the quality of life. This organization focuses on the socio-
cultural development of its operational regions. However, in India this organisation intends to
become a significant contributor to CSR activities by establishing the social improvement
projects. Such projects aim to improve the life of unprivileged communities in Indian village and
towns (Ferus-Comelo, 2014).

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According to the Company Act 2013, the CSR program includes vocational skill
development program, promotion of indigenous culture and disaster relief and rehabilitation
campaign. These CSR activities are carried out by this organization. In order to carry out the
CSR activities, such organization needs to ensure that they have to spend more in every financial
year to carry out the CSR activities (Tajhotels.com, 2017). In order to develop the CSR
responsibilities, such organization has a CSR committee with three or more directors in this
committee. The CSR activities are categorized under the section 135 of the Company Act. 2% of
the total profit of per year is spent by this organization to implement the CSR activities. On the
other hand, any surplus from the CSR program should not be added to the company benefit.
CSR policies of Taj Hotel in social aspects
The CSR policies of the Taj hotel are associated with the social development. In order to
develop the social life of the people this organization follows the Company Act 2013. Based on
this Act, disaster relief, vocational skill development and promotion of indigenous culture are
included as the CSR policies of such organization (Fatma, 2016). The CSR activities include the
development social projects to improve the life style of the unprivileged community. However,
community development is a big part of the CSR policy in context of social aspect. The target
community of their CSR policies is less privileged and marginalized women and youth.
Therefore, school dropout youth, disaster victims and people from the rural areas are also
categorized under the target group (Kumar, 2014). Hence, hotel Taj tries to bring improvement
in their quality of life by adoption the above CSR policies. Improvement of the social life is a
crucial CSR activity. Providing funding to the disaster victim is a vital social responsibility that
can be categorized under the CSR activities. Hotel Taj has a project monitoring team that ensures
the implementation of the CSR policies based on the Act.

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Stakeholder communication is an important part to implement the CSR policies within an
organization (Hsieh, 2012). However, in order to make an association with Tata web stakeholder
communication is necessary for the Taj hotel. Development of the vocational skill focuses on
the social development of the indigenous people. The supporter partners of Taj hotel in this
activity are NGOs and Tata Company. Such stakeholder association establishes CSR programs
and provides skill training to the hospitality industries skill training to rural people, less
privileged people and schedule cast people. This is an effective CSR policy of Taj hotel to bring
the lifestyle of such people who are discriminated by the society. Therefore, 30 skill-training
programs are in progress all over the country, which will be improved further to develop the
indigenous youth more efficient (Tajhotels.com, 2017). In order to develop the personality and
building the character of the indigenous youth vocational skill development program is a
significant CSR activity for Hotel Taj.
Development of the indigenous culture and the heritage is another CSR policy that is
associated with the social development (Dodds & Joppe, 2017). Providing support and improve
the destination of the areas where the IHCL hotels are situated is crucial. For this purpose, it is
important for the Taj hotel to extend support to the sites where the touristic interest occurs. On
the other hand, preservation of heritage is another step f the CSR activity. In order to maximize
the sustainable development associated with the social development, it is vital to provide training
to the guides as well as the tourism department of Taj hotel. Apart from these clean India
campaign in the hotel areas, villages, gardens and other public places is a beneficial approach of
Taj hotel that is included in their CSR activities. However, such policy is helpful to enhance the
social development by improving the lifestyle of the people (Coulson-Thomas, 2015).
Neighborhood improvement and the initiative to improve the maintenance are the big

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components of the social development. It is mandatory for the hospitality sectors to carry out the
clean campaign to make awareness among the staffs and the customers of their organization.
Promotion of the indigenous culture and the art is an effective CSR policy to
maximize the social development program. Such promotion can be done by displaying
handicrafts and the social arts. The strategic partnership will be helpful for an organization to
maintain their CSR activities (Shanti, 2016). In the context of hotel Taj, they have made a
strategic partnership with the NGOs and the Tata Company, which enables them to carry out
their social development project by meeting the needs of the indigenous people. Livelihood
enhancement program is also undertaken by this hotel to figure out their social development
activities. In order to carry out this program, it is essential to develop a responsible supply chain
partnership. The purchase managers of the hotel should be conscious of the society and the
environment. Training is required for the development of the supply chain partnership. This will
allows the staffs to control the quality of the raw materials, design and the financial management.
Apart from these, the disaster relief program is another effective CSR activity of Taj hotel to
improve the social life. They often provide funding for the disaster relief, which ensures their
social responsibilities (Ferus-Comelo, 2014). Hence, the above CSR policies of such
organization highlight on their different CSR policies in social aspects. These policies focus on
their social development projects to improve the life of the unprivileged people in the society.
Environmental sustainability
The Taj Mahal Palace is heavily focused upon conserving the environment in which it
operates and understands the needs for preserving environmental biodiversity in order to achieve
sustainability. The main emphasis is given upon Resource Efficiency, which advocate water,
energy and waste management programs, that are inclined towards making sure the non-

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renewable sources of energy are preserved for the future generations. The hotel understands that
the environment is not only comprised of vegetation and wildlife diversity, but humans are also
very much part of it (Ferus-Comelo, 2014). This has led the hotel to undertake projects that strive
to protect the indigenous heritage, culture, art and handicraft to maintain the unique
characteristics of the local communities. The hotel aims to support and improve the local
destinations where the hotel is located.
The Taj has various programs and initiatives that promote environmental safeguarding.
Taj safaris are one of the most important and popular projects and tourism plans of the hotel that
is committed towards preserving the country’s diverse and rich natural treasures. This initiative
is driven by some basic social and conservation principles.
The safari plans of the hotel adopts sustainable ecotourism models while providing the
guests with the ultimate wildlife experience. The Taj has collaborated with &Beyond to make
sure that sustainable methods are adopted that promote responsible tourism.
Controlling and reducing the food wastage quantity is another key aspect that is given a
lot of focus by the hotel. Food wastage is one of the biggest issues on the planet at the moment
and it has significant negative impacts on the environment (Verma, 2017). The Taj aims to
resolve this or at least reduce the amount of wasted food as much as possible.
Economic sustainability aspects of the hotel
The hotel management understands that without a firm economic planning and a strong
economy, no social or environmental causes can be fought for and hence the country’s and local
economies must be boosted as much as possible (Mukherjee & Ghosh, 2014). With this aim in
mind, the Taj offers internships to numerous management and hotel industry students every year

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and also accepts voluntary work that does entail payment of different sorts (Kaur, 2016). The
employees of the hotel are involved in every step of every activity so that the hotel can grow
with everyone. This is the very way which helps to achieve sustainable development, where
inclusive growth is prioritised every stakeholder is given much importance.
Awards and market position
Nine of the Taj Hotels have been accredited with EarthCheck, Gold, which is the global
benchmark for environmental conservation certification. This organisation has its focus
highlighted upon the tourism and hotel industry. This award was given to the hotels because of
their remarkable feat of successfully conserving a huge amount of energy, that helped to bring
electricity to 53,490 homes and reducing both a huge amount of waste as well as CO2 emissions.
The stunning success of the Taj EARTH program has led the hotels to be internationally
recognized as a global leader in the hospitality industry with a focus on sustainable development
and promoting sustainable tourism.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be inferred that the Taj Mahal Palace is focused upon
trying to create a tourism package that promotes tourism and ushers in a lot of foreign currency
in the country, all the while keeping the social, environmental and socio-economic aspects in
mind. the hotel is dedicated to achieving sustainable growth by maintaining a balance in the
tourism operations of the hotel and the environment where the hotel is located. The hotel aims to,
in the years to come, to rise and be recognised as one of the most hard working hotels in the
planet that has the best interests of the planet at the core of its operations.

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References
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An Actionable Business Agenda, New Delhi, IOD Publishing, 19th January, 54-59.
Dodds, R., & Joppe, M. (2017). The demand for, and participation in corporate social
responsibility and sustainable tourism–implications for the Caribbean. ARA: Revista de
Investigación en Turismo, 2(1).
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Tourism Industry (pp. 46-62). IGI Global.
Ferus-Comelo, A. (2014). CSR as corporate self-reporting in India's tourism industry. Social
Responsibility Journal, 10(1), 53-67.
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Responsibility Journal, 10(1), 53-67.
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INDIAN HOTELS COMPANY LIMITED (“IHCL”). Retrieved 3 November 2017, from
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