Sustainability in Hospitality: A Holiday Inn Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of sustainability within the hospitality sector, using Holiday Inn as a case study. It begins with an introduction to sustainability and its importance for business growth. The main body delves into the issues related to sustainability, such as energy and water usage, pollution, food waste, and waste management, specifically within the context of Holiday Inn's operations. The report then explores various applications of sustainability, including economic incentives, cost-saving measures, regulatory affairs, brand image enhancement, and improving guest experience. Furthermore, it critically evaluates the extent to which the principles of sustainable tourism align with those of sustainable development, highlighting the importance of resource management, waste reduction, biodiversity conservation, and community involvement. The conclusion emphasizes the significance of sustainability for organizations, society, and the environment, advocating for proactive measures to address sustainability issues within the hospitality sector. The report draws from various academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

Sustainability

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
What are the issue relating to sustainability and its application within the hospitality and
tourism sectors.............................................................................................................................2
Critically evaluate to what extent the principles of sustainable tourism are synonymous with
the principles of sustainable development...................................................................................4
Principles of sustainable development.........................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability can be describe as the term that is used to represent the ability to maintain
anything in a certain rate. It is very important for organisation to consider the concept of
sustainability as this will assist in long term growth and development of business (Solow,
2019). Sustainability is a process which will assist company in maintaining its position in
organisation as well as meet with the needs and requirements of customers. This report it based
on Holiday Inn company. This is one of the largest British owned company which is providing
its products and services to different market area. This organisation was developed in 1952 and
founder of Holiday Inn company is Kemmons Wilson. This report will includes different issues
which is related to sustainability along with application of sustainability in hospitability sector.
Apart from this the impact of principles of sustainable are determined for organisation.
MAIN BODY
CASE STUDY
Hospitality and tourism is one of the largest sector which is providing different types of
services and products to customers. This sector includes hotels, travelling servicer, restaurants,
spa, resorts and many more. Sustainability is the crucial component which should be looked by
hospitality sector in order to improve its business activities and enhancing the performance.
Holiday Inn is a well established company which is dealing in Hospitality and tourism sector.
This company include various hotels, restaurants and spa that are operating in different part of
the world (Clayton and Radcliffe, 2018). This company is offering pools and spa services to
customer which is essential for enhancing the experience of customer. Senior manager of
respective organisation have determined that there are different activities of organisation which
require high energy and while conducting business operation lots of water wastage is also
determined. It has been determined that all of these issues of organisation lead to create negative
impact on environment and affect the consumption of water and energy sources. It is crucial for
this organisation to change its business operation and focus on enhancing sustainability. The
issues of sustainability will affect the performance of company as well as have negative impact
on society and environment.
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What are the issue relating to sustainability and its application within the hospitality and tourism
sectors.
The term sustainability is means that meeting with current needs and required without doing
any compromise with future generation needs. Sustainability is a crucial concept that lead to
continuous growth and development as well as full filling all requirements. Holiday Inn company
is dealing in hospitality sector and it is very important for this organisation to take different steps
and actions that will assist in gaining sustainability growth of business (Liu and et.al., 2015). It
has been determined that there are various issues that is related to sustainability in respective
business and hospitality sector. The concept of sustainability is based on three major pillars such
as economic, environmental and social. So in order to grow business it is essential for
organisation to sustainably develop planet or environment, profits and people. It is very
important for Holiday Inn company to analyse and evaluate sustainability as this will lead to
increase in customer base as well as profits of organisation. Sustainability is very important part
of organisation and this will support in attaining desired goals and objective of organisation.
There are number of issues faced by company while implementing sustainability in respective
organisation. It is crucial to identify and analyse all of these issues in order to effectively apply
application of sustainability with in the hospitability sector in order to achieve set goals.
Issues regarding sustainability
Different issues that is faced by Holiday Inn organisation which is related to sustainability
are mention below in detail.
 Energy usage – There are different sources or activities that requires lots of energy
usage. The high amount of energy usage will lead to have negative impact on whole
hospitality sector as well as performance of organisation. High electricity and gas is
required in hotels, restaurants, resorts to perform business activities.
 Water usage – The major issue that is faced by Holiday Inn company regarding
sustainability includes lots of water usage in hospitality sector. It is crucial for company
to provide regular supply of water in order to meet with different needs of customers.
there is lots of water wastage in long showers and water pool in hotels and spa.
 Pollution – The issues related to sustainability that is faced by company is increase in
pollution. The high amount of natural gas, outputs of oil, gasoline and coal usage lead to
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increase in pollution as well as affect the environment. In tourism sector utilization of
energy for energy for transportation activities lead to increase in pollution.
 Food waste – Food products are not usable and most of the large amount of food
products is waste in hospitality sector. This is one of the major issue that will affect the
implementation of sustainability.
 Garbage and other waste material – This refer to all those item which can not be
recycle and lead to clog up the environment as well as crate trash. There are high amount
of garbage and other waste material developed by company which is issue in
sustainability.
Application of sustainability in hospitality and tourism sector
There are different application can be used by organisation for sustainability in hospitality
and tourism sector. It is crucial for Holiday Inn company to successfully apply different method
for sustainability is respective organisation.
 Economic incentives – There are various benefits and advantages provided by
government to organisation in order to increase efforts for sustainability in environment
(Voß and Kemp, 2015). Application of sustainability will lead to construction of green
building as well as plantation of more trees. This will provide benefit to company is tax
write offs, financial grants, insurance premium discounts and many more.
 Cost saving – This is one of the effective method and approach that can be used by
organisation in order to increase business productivity and efficiency. By applying cost
saving techniques company will be able to reduce the operational cost of company as
well as conduct business activities in more appropriate manner.
 Regulatory affairs – There are number of regulation and policies developed by
government in order to enhance sustainability as well as reduce the negative impact of
hospitality and tourism activities from business (Neubaue and Lank, 2017). It is
essential for Holiday Inn company to follow all set of regulation which is related to
operations of business and enhance healthy and save environment.
 Brand image – By adopting sustainable culture in organisation as well as implementing
business activities in such a manner that it will lead to increase the brand image of
respective company. Holiday Inn should apply application of sustainability in the brand
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image as this will support in increasing the awareness of company as well as developing
strong relationship with customers.
 Guest experience – It is crucial for organisation to increase the experience of guest and
meet with all set of customer requirements. Application of sustainability will assist in
enhancing guest experience as well as increasing loyalty of customers with Holiday Inn
organisation (Ioannou and Serafeim, 2017). This company should invest in environment
technology as this will have direct impact over experience of guest in positive manner.
All of the above are essential for Holiday Inn Company to apply in business as this will
support in increasing sustainability and growth of organisation. application of sustainability will
assist in resolving the issues of business and accomplishment of desired objectives.
Critically evaluate to what extent the principles of sustainable tourism are synonymous with the
principles of sustainable development.
The principle of sustainability lead to have direct impact on performance and effectively of
business. It is crucial for Holiday Inn company to analyse and evaluate different types of
principle of sustainability in order to conduct business activities in more effective manner.
Principle of sustainable tourism is very useful in providing guidance and support to company
through which that can accurately perform tourism and hospitality activities and increase
organisation performance. There are different principles that is associate with sustainable
development of business. In order to determined that synonymous between principle of
sustainable tourism and sustainable development are mention below.
The principles of sustainable tourism
There are various principle of sustainability that needs to be followed by Holiday Inn
organisation in order to increase its performance and productivity. Different principle of
sustainable in hospitality sector is explain below –
 It is crucial for hotel to use all resources of organisation is sustainable manner so that it
can be us for longer term.
 Company should focus on reduction of over consumption of material and increase in
waste.
 It is important to maintain the bio diversity while conducting business functions.
 Planning activities of business should be integrated with the growth of tourism.
 Business should support local economies.
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 It is beneficial for organisation involving local communities for sustainable tourism.
 It is essential for organisation to provide right and accurate training to employees as this
will assist in effective functioning of organisation.
 Tourism organisation should consult with all stakeholder as well as public while taking
important decision of business.
 Marketing activities of hotel and hospitality services should be performed in effective and
accurate manner (Hahn, Preuss and Figge, 2015). So that it does not provide harm to
society and environment.
 Company should conduct a proper researcher while creating or implementing new
tourism services. This will help in meeting with the needs and requirement of customers.
Principles of sustainable development
 Conservation of ecosystem – This is the ultimate motive of sustainable development to
conserve the earth as this will assist in enhancing durability of ecological system.
 Sustainable development of society – Development is dependent of the availability of
health residence, health services, employment and quality education and so on.
 Conservation of biodiversity – This includes conservation of biodiversity which
includes conserve and protect all living beings of the world.
 Population control – By controlling and maintaining population size sustainability
development could be achieve.
 Conservation of human resource – People are very crucial in optimum optimization of
different element that is related to environment (Laszlo and Zhexembayeva, 2017).
Conservation of human is essential for development of earth.
 Increase in people participation – For sustainable development, joint efforts of each
and every individual is required in order to improve the efficiency to perform well.
 Conservation of cultural heritage – It is essential for conserve the heritage culture as
this will lead to have emphasize in sustainable development. This will includes social
traditions, customers and so on.
 Included within carrying capacity of earth – It is essential that development should
work under the carrying capability or capability of the world. This will help in
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sustainable development as well as meeting with different needs by consider further
requirements.
By the analysis of principle of sustainable tourism and principle of sustainable develop it has
been determined that both principles are crucial which will lead to growth and development
of society (Neubauer and Lank, 2016). These principles are focusing on improving the
economic, environmental and society capability.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that sustainability is very important for part of
organisation, society and environment. It is crucial for organisation to identify all those issues
which is related to sustainability as well as conduct business activates in such as manner that it
will lead to reduce in issues of organisation. Apart from this it has been determined that there are
different principle of sustainable tourism and sustainable development which are beneficial of
environment and organisation.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Solow, R.M., 2019. 25. Sustainability: an economist’s perspective. Economics of the
environment: Selected readings.
Clayton, T. and Radcliffe, N., 2018. Sustainability: a systems approach. Routledge.
Liu, J., and et.al., 2015. Systems integration for global sustainability. Science, 347(6225),
p.1258832.
Voß, J.P. and Kemp, R., 2015. Sustainability and reflexive governance: introduction.
Technische Universität Berlin.
Neubauer, F. and Lank, A.G., 2016. The family business: Its governance for
sustainability. Springer.
Ioannou, I. and Serafeim, G., 2017. The consequences of mandatory corporate
sustainability reporting. Harvard Business School research working paper, (11-100).
Hahn, T., Pinkse, J., Preuss, L. and Figge, F., 2015. Tensions in corporate sustainability:
Towards an integrative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(2), pp.297-316.
Laszlo, C. and Zhexembayeva, N., 2017. Embedded sustainability: The next big
competitive advantage. Routledge.
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Bosselmann, K., 2016. The principle of sustainability: transforming law and governance.
Taylor & Francis.
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