Assessing Sustainability Issues and Profitability in Hospitality

This report provides an in-depth analysis of sustainability within the hospitality industry. It begins by evaluating the industry's contribution to environmental issues, particularly climate change, and social sustainability concerns, such as diversity. The report then assesses the impact of these issues on the profitability of hospitality businesses, highlighting how environmental problems and social challenges like cultural misunderstandings affect financial performance. Finally, it critically evaluates the importance of corporate sustainability management in the hospitality sector, emphasizing the need for practices that integrate environmental, social, and economic considerations to ensure long-term growth and responsible business operations. The report underscores the interconnectedness of sustainability, profitability, and effective management practices within the hospitality industry.

SUSTAINABLE
HOSPITALITY
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
1. Evaluation of the extent to which the hospitality industry contributes to the sustainability
issues...........................................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2. The impact of these issues in hospitality industries profitability............................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3. Critically evaluate the importance of corporate sustainability management in the hospitality
industry........................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability refers to focusing on meeting the needs of the present without
compromising the future generations' ability to meet their needs. This concept is composed of
three different pillars which are environmental, social and economic, also known as profits,
planet and people. The present report explores the impact of hospitality industry on the society
and the environment and in what manner the industry is creating sustainability management
challenges (Su, Pan and Chen, 2017). Report has focus on evaluating the importance of
Corporate Sustainability management in the hospitality industry.
TASK 1
1. Evaluation of the extent to which the hospitality industry contributes to the sustainability
issues
Hospitality industry is known for provision of accommodation, food and beverage, travel
and tourism facilities to its guests. The main components of hospitality industry include lodging
operation, transportation services, retail sector, food and beverage options, etc. The industry
tends to provide its customers with a variety of services in order to satisfy them and earn better
profitability. It is important for the industry or the organisations operating under it to ensure that
proper practices of sustainability are being followed to ensure appropriate growth and
development.
Impact of climate change:
The topmost environmental issues which is surrounding the hospitality industry is
climate change which has occurred to the business practices conducted by the companies in
tourism sector. Climate change is impacting the society to large aspects. The industry operates on
tourist destinations or places which are unique and tends to attract numerous tourists. It is
important for the industry and the organisations operating in the industry to ensure that they are
attracting enough customers to achieve better growth and earn required profitability (Owusu and
Asumadu-Sarkodie, 2016). In order to do this, hotel and tourism tends to attract customers by
practices of promotion and advertising etc. It is because tourists are facing difficulty in
travelling due of the rising temperatures and because of the climate which tends to carry bad
conditions. The tourists while travelling ensure that the climate is safe and they are not going to

face any troubles. The climate change is making them not able to travel and it is impacting the
growth and development of hotels and the entire hospitality industry.
People when travel from one place to another they tend to make use of resources such as
transportation, accommodation facilities and food & beverages. The industry in order to provide
them with the best services tends to provide them with better sustainability. Its customers or
guests on the other hand often exploit the provided services and it impacts the environment to a
great extend. As various human action performed by visitors can increase the chances of
damage to heritage sites. Due to increase in tourist at particular tourist place can give rise to the
pollution at particular tourist place. The various form of pollution which can be occurs due to
increase in number of tourist at particular destination includes noise pollution, water pollution,
traffic emission etc. which could have adverse impact on the environment.
Tourism assist in promoting the conservation of wildlife. In addition to this, tourism also
promotes the maintenance of cultural as well as other heritage sites. It help government in
generation of the revenue which can be then utilized for the development of heritage sites. It
aids in reducing the different issues such as deforestation etc.
Positive Impact:
 This kind of issue specially nature and eco tourism which aid encourage conservation of
wildlife.
 It aids generate funding for maintaining animal preserves and shipping parks through
enter charges and guide fees.
Negative Impact:
 Tourism attitudes threat to natural and cultural resource, like water supply , heritage sites.
 Also, it cause raised pollution through traffic emission and increased noise.
Impact of diversity:
The social sustainability issues which the industry is contributing into includes the issue
of diversity. Diversity is one of the most important aspects being faced by the people in the
nation due to increase in tourism (Bhatt and et.al., 2016). Today, people from the different
cultures and traditions are becoming part of the hospitality industry. It has been seen as the
industry often faces issues surrounding diversity under which people do not accept other cultures

and people. The hotels and tourism tends to hire workers from different countries, cultures and
traditions. However, the local workers or employees do not like the people which are different
religions and cultures. It is important for the industry to ensure that these surrounding issues of
social sustainability are being solved. In order to do this, it is important for the hospitality
industry and the hotels to ensure that they are providing effective training and development to its
employees about maintaining a better relationship with it people of other cultures and traditions.
Positive Impact:
 Cultural and ethnic tourism have been showed rising trend in world tourism and hotels.
 There are new leisure comforts which outcome from tourism also advantage the localised
people.
Negative Impact:
 International tourism increase knowing among countries and people which can generate
conflicts due to cultural misunderstanding.
 Different attitudes and cultural of people will affect tourism and hotel business.
Impact of Economic Sustainability:
The contribution of economic sustainability industry in hospitality industry includes that
it is important for the businesses which are operating under the hospitality industry to be
profitable. In order to do this, it is important for the hospitality industry and the organisations
working under it follow proper compliance, governance and risk management. It is because
without these aspects the industry cannot flourish and it is not possible for hotels and tourism to
achieve growth and development. In order to achieve required growth and development in the
hospitality sector, hotels needs to ensure that it is regularly being involved in the activities of
promotion and advertising in order to attract more and more customers to the industry. It can
help the industry to reach new growth and ensure that appropriate growth and development is
taking place. Without being economically active the industry cannot achieve set growth and
development, also, the hotels cannot reach set growth and ensure that appropriate development is
taking place (Andersson and Öhman, 2017). To be economically stable and growth oriented it is
important for to earn required profitability and ensure proper governance is taking place. The
hotels and tourism to maintain environment sustainability can make use promotion, advertising
and campaigning to earn require profits. Along with it, the hotel needs to follow the set

guidelines, rules and regulations by the government which can enhance its sustainable growth
and ensure that it is economically sustainable. Also, when the hospitality industry is going to be
economically sustainability, it is going to increase the growth and development of the overall
countries and would provide a rise in their gross domestic product of GDP.
Positive Impact:
 Through this kind of issue, tourism create jobs through direct employment within the
tourism industry.
 Through this practice, gives chances for small scale in terms of generate extra tax
revenue like airport and hotel taxes.
Negative Impact:
 Jobs are made by tourism frequently seasonal and poorly paid yet tourism can push up
localised property costs.
 Generating money by tourism and hotel does not always advantage the localised people
as similar of it leaks out to large international firms like hotel chains.
TASK 2
2. The impact of these issues in hospitality industries profitability
It is one of the most important aspect of the hospitality industry to earn profitability and
ensure that it is serving its customers appropriately and making them feel satisfied. Along with it,
better profitability tends to help the industry and hotels to keep being engaged in development
activities. In order to earn profitability, hotels and tourism within the hospitality industry makes
use of a variety of techniques, these techniques include advertising, promotion, campaigning etc.
These activities tend to attract more and more customers to the hotel and it directly provides the
organisation with better profitability. Profitability increases the organisations' ability to open
more doors for development and reach new aspects of innovation and reaching better heights.
Sustainability is one of the major aspects impacting the profitability of the organisations (Baaka
and et.al., 2017). The environmental issue as climate change, economic as sustainability and
social impact like cultural diversity the overall profitability of the hospitality industry.
Impact of climate change:
In case of environmental sustainability, problems such as global warming and climate
change tends to impact the profitability of the industry. Global warming is making the hospitality

industry face large issues such as today, people are not choosing to travel from one place to
another because of climate change. People feel that the places which they want to visit because
of its good climate and environment, have not remained the same because of the climate change.
Along with it, when it comes to environment sustainability, the other factors impacting the
industry includes pollution. The pollution aspect is making the customers of the hospitality
industry to choose those places which are less polluted. For example, places like Delhi and Paris
are the most polluted places in the world. People do not like to travel to these places even after
they are very famous. The aspect of pollution makes them ignore these places and it directly
impacts on the hotels and other organisations' profitability at large. The organisations in the
industry tends to suffer from these aspects and it impacts the profitability. This makes the
organisations working in the industry to suffer from growth and development and impacts the
overall development of the hospitality industry (Kuzey and Uyar, 2017). It is important for the
hotels and tourism are to ensure that they are doing appropriate promotions and advertisements
in order to deal with this environmental issue of sustainability.
Impact of Diversity of socio culture:
The social sustainability tends to impact the profitability of the organisation in many
ways. The first aspect of social sustainability which hampers the profitability of the organisation
includes is its diversity. Diversity is one of the most important needs of the hospitality industry.
People from different nationalities and cultures are becoming part of the hospitality industry and
it is important for the industry to ensure that appropriate growth and development is being
achieved. With the help of its employees that are hired by the hotel and tourism working in the
hospitality management, it is ensured that desired profitability is being achieved. In order to
reach set growth and development, its employees play an important role (Erzurumlu and
Erzurumlu, 2015).
This makes it important for the hotels and tourism which are a large part of the hospitality
industry to ensure that its employees are working with each other in cooperation. Along with it,
the organisations need employees which are better at team work and do not create any kind of
barriers that leads to conflicts and situations that makes them suffer. It is important for hotels and
tourism to ensure that practices of diversification are taking place. The employees today when
face employees which belong to other cultures and tradition's tends to face situations of conflicts

and it makes the organisations' growth suffer (Charter and Tischner, 2017). It is important for
hotels and tourism to ensure that appropriate practices of training and development is taking
place in which employees are provided training of diversification and managing conflicts. This
can help the industry to solve the issues of diversification.
Lack of diversification is one of the biggest issue and challenge that impacts the industry
and its growth. Also, it is impacting its profitability as well. It is important for the organisations
working under the hospitality to ensure that they are ensuring best practices of diversification. In
order to increase diversification, hotels and other hospitality organisations like tourism can
recruit people with other backgrounds. This tends to help the organisations and its management
of ensure that appropriate practices of diversifying the workplace is taking place. Appropriate
diversification is going to make the employees more productive and would allow organisation to
reach its goals and objectives. Along with it, it is going to help the hotel and the organisations
working in the hospitality industry to ensure better reputation and success.
Impact of Economic Sustainability:
The economic sustainability issues faced by the hospitality industry includes
requirements of profitability in order to reach better development, keeping along with the
practices of law and legislations etc. The times when the economic situation of the country is
weak and it is facing issues related to growth, it tends to impact the overall organisation and its
directly impacts on businesses' profitability. It is important to have the ability to support a
defined level of economic production. Economic goal of most of the nations is a constant. The
poverty line is also defined as the minimum level of income and sustainable issues like
unemployment rate also impact on the business profitability and economy (Montabon, Pagell and
Wu, 2016). For example, Accor is a company which has adopted the Planet 21 strategy which
main concentrate on corporate sustainability. This strategy has helped an enterprise in gaining
the customer loyalty. The planet 21 strategy based on the corporate sustainability has provided
organization an ease in attracting more number of customers and hence assisted business entity
in increasing sales as well as profitability. In addition to this, an enterprise has implemented the
advance technology which has aid firm in reducing the waste that has been proven to be
beneficial in terms of reducing negative effect of business operations on society as well as
environment.

TASK 3
3. Critically evaluate the importance of corporate sustainability management in the hospitality
industry
Corporate sustainability management is a method that can be used by hotel and tourism to
create a long term stakeholder value through implementation of business strategy that lays
emphasis on environmental, social, cultural, environmental and economic dimensions of doing
business (Cappa and et.al. 2016). There are many practices of corporates sustainability like
ethics, regulations, corporate governance, transparency, stakeholder engagement and others.
Cost reduction
Over a period of time, hoteliers have started focusing more on fluffing their CSM
responsibilities. There are many hotels and other hospitality organisation those which are
continuously taking initiatives like corporate governance to fulfil their corporate obligation. This
is beneficial for the hotel in order to minimise their operational cost and improving operational
procedure. Now many firms are investing in implementing new technologies so that resources
can be re-used and wastage can be minimised. These enterprises emphases on recycling of
material which helps in reducing overall cost of business. For example: Hilton hotel focus on
improving air quality and also organise training sessions to train its staff members about
sustainability aspects which results in raising satisfaction level of consumers.
Economic benefits
Corporate sustainability gives economic incentives to hospitality industry. As if any hotel
invest amount in social welfare activities or environmental protection elements then firm gets the
benefit of tax write off, discount in insurance premiums etc. This helps business in minimising
their operational cost and raising profitability of enterprise significantly (Guillen-Cuevas and
et.al., 2017).
Raising brand image
Sustainable corporate culture is beneficial or important for firm in retaining talent and
making consumers loyal towards the brand. In the recent time most of the experienced and
skilled candidates like to work in organisation which fulfil its social responsibilities. Company’s
commitment towards society, economic and environmental aspects raise brand image of firm
significantly. For example, Hilton hotel has put efforts to reduce carbon output by amenity

recycling and this activity has resulted in reducing 20.9% carbon output. This has helped entity
in raising its brand image and it has attracted many travellers towards the brand (Moncada and
Aristizábal, 2016). Another example: Thomas Cook also contribute in corporates sustainability
practices like ethics, regulations, corporate governance etc. which can aid to increase the brand
image of company in the tourism industry.

Illustration 1: Corporate sustainability
( Source: C O R P O R A T E S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y F O R P E O P L E , P R O F I T ,
P L A N E T , 2 0 1 7 )
The strategies created are intended to foster longevity, transparency, and proper
employee development within business organizations. To enhance corporate sustainability in
hotels for example Marriott and Hilton as well as tourism needs to create an environment of
transparency in organization. It can assist them in increasing overall profitability and experience
of consumers. Hospitality industry in order to achieve transparency can engage in open
communication with stakeholders. This will also assist them in building trust and developing
employee belongingness (Li and et.al., 2017).
Company to create a transparent environment for corporate sustainability management
needs to be accurate, clear and concise in information which they are giving to stakeholders. This
is attained when a company educates its employees and outside stakeholders (customers,
suppliers, and the entire community) and move them to act on matters such as waste reduction or
energy efficiency. This management can help Marriott hotel in thinking about future
management. It can assist them in retaining employees and can also reduce worker’s turnover.
This aspect when followed can help firm in enhancing profit. It can also help them in better
management. Employees are more engaged in this type of organization where corporate
sustainability has been managed. Corporate sustainability can be achieved through complex
performance indicator. This can also help the firm attaining growth.
To operate in the hospitality industry, it is important to maintain and ensure sustainable
business practices in order to make the corporate sustainability in the hospitality industry and to
gain the competitive advantages in the hospitality market. Hotel like Marriott and Hilton apply
the CSM in the hotel operation to doing good for the environment help the hotel to increase its
efficiency and working ability (Su, Pan and Chen, 2017).
To participate in the corporate sustainability improves the brand awareness of the
Marriott in the market and loyalty for the customers. As they take care of the environment and
the customers both in order to gain the maximum profit. This will help the Marriott to gain and

attract the more customers in their hotel so that they can provide the best services to them and
satisfied them.
Execution of sustainability practices in the hotel by the Marriott, also attract the more
employees in the hotel, motivate them to work with the Marriott as because of the big brand
image in the market and loyalty by doing good for the environment as well. That help the help to
maintain its sustainability in the market. Marriott also have invested in proactive diversity
management program that not only improve the reputation of the hotel but also reap financial
benefits.
Environment is one of the major area in which hospitality firms make investment. Hotel
like Marriott can make recycle program and use recycle products in the hotel that also reduce the
wastage and increase the productivity of the hotel as well. By taking common measures like
greening operation, supply chain, and energy audits help the Marriott to rationalise the water and
energy consumption (Font and Lynes, 2018). Investing in this area by the Marriott hotel
drastically change the future of the energy consumption. This help the hotel to get and retain in
the green customer base.
For instance, Corporate suitability strategy has help the Marriott and Hilton hotel in
increasing it sustainability in international market. As the hotel services are intangible that is
being evaluation of the quality and reputation is measured by their works like customers serves
and work for the environment. Applying CSM in the hotel also help the Marriott to make it
different form the other that make the program for the betterment of the society and environment
also. It is the strategy which has assisted an enterprise in increasing its sustainability in the
market. With this become the more sustainable in the hospitality industry and also influence
other to conduct the sustainable business practices in order to reduce the negative effect of their
business operations on the environment, society and economy. (Kim and et.al., 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that the hospitality industry contributes a lot
in the environmental issue and social challenges by growing the economic value of the country
that can help and make program for the betterment of the environment and society. It has also
concluded that those issue have great impact on the hospitality industry and also affects its profit
growth in the make. For example, corporate sustainability strategy has helped the Marriott and