Hospitality in GCC: Analyzing Food Miles, Security, and Sustainability

This report analyzes food miles, food security, and food sustainability within the hotel and restaurant industry of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region, where natural conditions pose challenges to food production. It evaluates the concept of food miles, its limitations in assessing food impact, and alternative assessment methods. Specific issues faced by the region's hospitality sector are identified, and short-term and long-term action plans are proposed to address problems such as the dilemma of decreasing food miles versus reducing food waste. The research considers environmental, socio-cultural, and economic sustainability factors, concluding with a self-reflection on the research, analysis, and recommendations.

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CURRENT ISSUE IN HOSPITALITY

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Definition of food miles.............................................................................................................3
Limitations of food miles for measuring the effects of food production, supply and
consumption...............................................................................................................................4
The alternatives to assess the appropriate effects of food..........................................................4
Selection of the strategy to resolve issues regarding the unavailability of food storage:..........5
Conclusions:...............................................................................................................................7
Reflection:..................................................................................................................................9
References................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The focus of the report is analysing the issue related to food miles, food security and food
sustainability in the hotel and restaurants of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) region.
Natural conditions of the GCC region have made the food production process a constant
challenge. Hence, in the present study, first, the concept of food miles is evaluated followed
by the confines of food miles in terms of assessing the impact of food. The review also
discusses the alternative method of examining the effects of diet. After identifying the
specific issues faced by the hospitality sector of the region, short-term and long-term actions
plans are developed for resolving the problems. As the GCC region is experiencing the
dilemma of decreasing food miles versus reducing food waste, the GM involves choosing the
most appropriate option considering the environmental, socio-cultural and economic
sustainability factors. Lastly, a self-reflection on the activities regarding the entire research,
analysis and recommendations is developed.
Definition of food miles
Food miles refer to the expanse food travels from the manufacturing place usually the
farmhouse to the customers. Over the past 50 years, the patterns of production, delivery and
consumption of food are changed significantly that resulted in the origination of food miles in
the UK. Food miles is a factor applied while measuring the environmental effect of food
containing the impact on global warming. Food miles concept initiated in 1990, was
considered by Tim Lang at the SAFE (Sustainable Agriculture Food and Environment
Alliance). It was first published in a report named ‘The Food Miles Report: The dangers of
long-distance food transport’. Some academics trust that arise in the area of food travels is
because of trade globalisation. The purpose of the food supply is based on radical changes in
delivery style, some larger districts, rise in packaged and processed foods and making some

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voyages to the market. These processes generate a little part of the GHG emission, and 83%
of the entire CO2 emission occurs in the production phase (Pratt, Mackenzie & Sutton, 2017).
Limitations of food miles for measuring the effects of food production, supply and
consumption
The higher the distance food has to travel, the higher the environmental impact because of
GHG mission linked to transportation. Food is imported in the GCC countries from several
nations. However, precise and accurate data on food miles are not available. In 2010,
emirates of Dubai imported food was calculated by multiplying the amount of food imported
from a specific country with the average distance between the UAE and that country. Thus,
the obtained values provide an idea on the mass of imported food from overseas and the
impact of these imports on the environment. Therefore, the lack of detailed data on the
product amount imported from faraway countries is the most significant limitation of
assessing the impact of food (Moskwa, Higgins-Desbiolles & Gifford, 2015).The Australia
economy would agonise if governments and consumers across the world reinforced the
campaign ‘food miles’. GCC regions have been importing foods from India, Sudan, Brazil,
Ukraine and many other countries. Data regarding imports in Dubai from foreign countries is
available. However, similar data on food miles for other countries is no available that limits
the calculation regarding the amount of GHG gases emit due to the transportation, production
and consumption of food (Cleveland, Carruth & Mazaroli, 2015). Further, although, food
miles can help in calculating the emission caused by transport, it cannot facilitate the impact
of food production, and consumption on the environment and food security due to lack of
detailed information on how much foods are imported from which countries (Pirani, &
Arafat, 2016).
The alternatives to assess the appropriate effects of food

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As detailed data on food miles is not available, finding alternative processes for measuring
the impact of food is necessary. It can be done by implementing a comprehensive method of
assessing the effects of food production, supply and consumption. While importing any food
items from any country, detailed information such as the name of the country, the amount and
type of food is introduced should be recorded. It helps to analyse the amount of carbon and
other GHG gases produced by the transportation, production and consumption of food from
different countries (Sonnino, 2016). Later, all the data can be assembled for calculating the
actual impact created by the emission and food waste caused by excessive food production,
food miles and consumption. For example, Bahrain imported 10.1 thousands of tons apple
within 2009-2013, but from which country is not specified. If the name of the country along
with the name and quantity of the product was recorded, the accurate information on the
effect made by the food miles, production, and supply and food consumption could have been
generated.
Selection of the strategy to resolve issues regarding the unavailability of food storage:
Lack of availability of storage for the food and beverage products creates enormous impact
on a hotel business by increasing the overall costs due to receiving frequent food deliveries.
Though frequent delivery of food resolves the lack of storage availability related issues and
reduces the wastage of food it increases the carbon footprint (Kaitibie, Haq & Rakotoarisoa,
2017). Therefore, the strategy to reduce the food mile needs to be considered so that it can be
helpful to resolve the environmental issues.
For transporting food from the suppliers to a hotel to prepare foods for the customers, mainly
trucks and aeroplanes are used for covering such as long distance. These lorries and
aeroplanes consume lots of fuels to cover the distance which emits CO2 in greater extents
that contributes to global warming (Kaitibie, Haq & Rakotoarisoa, 2017). Therefore, for

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reducing the impact of food delivery, reduction of food miles is one of the best solutions to
resolve the storage-related issues.
Revenue gained from the oil and gas of the GCC countries has enabled them to accelerating
development in every aspect of life (The National, 2019). Presently, GCC countries have
become one of the hubs for the intense activities in various spheres such as military,
industrial, construction, geopolitical and tourism. The GCC countries have observed
tremendous GDP growth in both 2018 and 2019. In the year of 2018, GDP has been
improved by 2.8%, and it is expected to grow by 3.3% in the year of 2019 (The National,
2019). The oil and gas business of GCC countries attracts business person from all over the
world which creates a good possibility for a hospitality business.
The rapid modernisation of the country is highly significant for achieving an active growth of
the hospitality sector. Moreover, enormous opportunity to conduct business in the GCC
countries increases the chances of better profitability for the hospitality and tourism sector
(Mabli & Worthington, 2015). Most of the people of the country are educated; therefore, it
attracts a huge number of business in the country which increases an active growth in the
sector. However, the culture of the country is a mixture of various cultures, and it is highly
complex, so that cross-cultural training is necessary among employees of the hospitality
business.
However, producing oil and gas in rapid scale has created an environmental problem in the
GCC countries such as loss of biodiversity, desertification, pollutions in the coastal and
marine areas along with the scarcity of water due to rapid construction and tourism. Due to
the military conflicts, demolition debris along with the construction, the environmental
problems are increasing in the GCC countries. The ecological footprint is one of the useful
indicators for understanding the severity of the ecological issues. It has been observed that

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the UAE has the largest environmental footprint among the 150 countries (Arabnews, 2019).
Air pollution is high in GCC countries due to the transportation of goods and construction.
Emission of CO2 is four times higher than the world average, and it is eight times higher than
the other countries which are non-GCC country. Therefore, from the above description, it can
be said that presently GCC countries are facing air pollution-related issues due to higher CO2
emission (Pirani & Arafat, 2016). For this reason, it will not be useful for the hotel
organisation not to follow the frequent food delivery to resolve the storage-related issues
rather than they can reduce the food mile and collect locally sourced food to reduce the
carbon footprint.
For resolving the storage of food and beverage shortage-related issues, it is necessary for
following the below mentioned long and short term recommendations:
Recommendation Time required
Short-term  Buying proper refrigeration to store food in bulk
quantity
 Hiring personnel who have efficient knowledge of
hygiene factor and storage of food with efficiencies
 Buying smart electronics to reduce the consumption of
energy and protect the environment
Two months
Long-term  Identifying the resources of food which is situated in
the nearby location of GCC country for borrowing
food and beverage
 Develop a long term agreement with the local
suppliers so that they can acquire food in large
quantities and whenever requirement basis
 Buying electric vehicles to acquire food from some
local suppliers to borrow meat
Seven months
Conclusions:

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From the above description, it can be concluded that the food mile has enormous importance
on the environmental footprint of food consumption as well as production. Therefore, for
reducing the carbon footprint from a business, it is always necessary to consider sustainability
during the consumption of food. Storage issues are one of the prevalent problems in the
restaurant and hotel as there is an ethical dilemma. This is because an organisation can get the
delivery of fresh food from suppliers to address storage issues and offers better health to the
customers, but frequent shipments of food from suppliers increases carbon footprint due to
the transportation which is CO2 in greater extents. Therefore, for resolving the environmental
issues, every organisation must improve its storage systems and identify local resources so
that it can reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

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Reflection:
During gathering a practical knowledge about the current issues in hospitality, I have
conducted active research on both the online and offline media which has helped me in
collecting a brief knowledge about the research topic. Conduction of intense study to gather a
better understanding of the research topic is helpful for me in increasing my research
conduction skills and critical thinking skills. This essential thinking skill has been achieved
by me during collecting and analysing the information. I have gained a better analysing
ability during examining the knowledge which I have learned from various resources.
However, while conducting the research, I have faced issues in accessing the paid study
materials. Moreover, I have also faced problems in getting sufficient knowledge about the
research topic. Due to the lesser level of available information, I have encountered issues in
gaining an in-depth experience about the particular subject.
This study has helped me in getting sufficient knowledge about food miles. I have gained a
good understanding of the impact of food miles on the environment. During collecting
information for the study, I have learned the knowledge that food is imported in GCC
countries from different countries. Though, it is difficult in measuring the production of
foods, supply as well as consumptions because of lack of data availability (Pueschel,
Chamaret & Parguel, 2017). As it is difficult to analyse the impact of food production with
the help of food mile, then I think that the organisation must examine the carbon footprint of
the country. Therefore, this study is also helpful to identify various methods to investigate the
impact of the production of food on the environment.
I have also gained information on why it is necessary for selecting local suppliers to buy raw
materials for preparing foods for the customers. The study has helped me in getting the
knowledge of why a hotel based organisation need to select borrow products from local

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suppliers to reduce the cost of transportation and protect the environment. This study is also
helpful for me in identifying the external environment of GCC countries. I have observed that
the GCC countries have sufficient economic wellbeing due to the revenue generated from the
oil and gas, but they have remarkably lower focuses on protecting the environment. For these
reasons, GCC countries hold the top position in emitting CO2.
Moreover, the rapid urbanisation of the country increases the number of construction-related
development in the country which increases the emission of greenhouse gases (Al-Maamary,
Kazem & Chaichan, 2017). Therefore, the overall environmental conditions of the GCC
countries are terrible. I have observed that air pollution is high in the country due the more
significant number of vehicles and industries; therefore, for saving the environment from
further degradation, it will not be useful for a hospitality based organisation in following the
just-in-time approach. This is because just-in-time reduces the wastages of food, but it
increases the greenhouse gas emission due to the involvement of higher degree
transportation. As it is difficult to develop some food crop in the GCC countries, therefore, I
think that GCC countries need to borrow bulk food crop from other countries so that they can
reduce the environmental sustainability-related issues.

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References
Al-Maamary, H. M., Kazem, H. A., & Chaichan, M. T. (2017). Renewable energy and GCC
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March, 2019 from http://www.arabnews.com/node/1374621
Cleveland, D. A., Carruth, A., & Mazaroli, D. N. (2015). Operationalizing local food: goals,
actions, and indicators for alternative food systems. Agriculture and Human
Values, 32(2), 281-297.
Kaitibie, S., Haq, M. M., & Rakotoarisoa, M. A. (2017). Analysis of Food Imports in a
Highly Import Dependent Economy. Review of Middle East Economics and
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Mabli, J., & Worthington, J. (2015). The food access environment and food purchase
behavior of SNAP households. Journal of hunger & environmental nutrition, 10(1), 132-
149.
Moskwa, E., Higgins-Desbiolles, F., & Gifford, S. (2015). Sustainability through food and
conversation: the role of an entrepreneurial restaurateur in fostering engagement with
sustainable development issues. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(1), 126-145.
Pirani, S. I., & Arafat, H. A. (2016). The interplay of food security, agriculture and tourism
within GCC countries. Global Food Security, 9(2), 1-9.
Pirani, S. I., & Arafat, H. A. (2016). The interplay of food security, agriculture and tourism
within GCC countries. Global Food Security, 9(2), 1-9.

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Pratt, S., Mackenzie, M., & Sutton, J.L. (2017). Food miles and food choices: the case of an
upscale urban hotel in Hong Kong. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(6), 779-795.
Pueschel, J., Chamaret, C., & Parguel, B. (2017). Coping with copies: The influence of risk
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Sonnino, R. (2016). The new geography of food security: exploring the potential of urban
food strategies. The Geographical Journal, 182(2), 190-200.
The National. (2019). IMF expects GCC economic growth to pick up. Retrieved 30th March,
2019 from https://www.thenational.ae/business/imf-expects-gcc-economic-growth-to-
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