Tranquility At Roseville: Analysis of Sustainable Tourism Practices

This report critically assesses the sustainability practices of Tranquility At Roseville, an accommodation provider in Sydney, Australia, in the context of the tourism industry. It identifies key sustainability issues facing the business, including economic, socio-cultural, and environmental challenges. The report applies the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria to evaluate the business's performance, highlighting strengths such as environmental management through energy-efficient lighting and a well-structured garbage disposal system, and interpretation and education through well-trained local guides. Weaknesses are identified in working with local communities, responsible marketing, and contribution to conservation. The report suggests potential improvements, including focusing on responsible marketing, supporting the local economy by sourcing local products and hiring local staff, and implementing actions that contribute to conservation efforts. The report concludes that by addressing these weaknesses and implementing sustainable principles, Tranquility At Roseville can enhance its sustainability and grow in the coming years.

(Tranquility at Roseville, Sydney)

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Sustainability Issues.........................................................................................................................3
Assessment of operation..................................................................................................................5
Strengths and weaknesses................................................................................................................6
Potential improvement.....................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Sustainability is gaining much attention these days as global warming is taking a toll on our
ecosystem, thus affecting natural resources. The businesses are aiming for sustainability in order
to expand their market and gain attention in the business world. Sustainability helps a business to
grow beyond regular business practices and experience new innovative ways to nurture a
business (Miller, Merrilees & Coghlan, 2015). The topic of this report is sustainability practice in
the context of tourism and its related aspects, specifically an accommodation provider operating
in Sydney – Tranquillity At Roseville. Tranquillity At Roseville is popular among tourists visiting
Sydney and provides a wide range of facilities such as free wifi, free parking, non-smoking
rooms, sports activities, laundry and ironing services etc. The rooms and spacious and
comfortable equipped with a flat screen TV, individual climate control, an iron with ironing
board, a work desk and a closet. In this report, it will be critically assessed that how these
tourism related practices are aligned with the principles of sustainability.
Sustainability Issues
Sydney is one of the popular tourist destinations of Australia, attracting tourists from all over the
world. The tourist accommodation providers of Sydney have always yielded a large number of
revenue by providing accommodation to the pool of tourists flying there from different countries.
But lately the accommodation providers such as Tranquillity At Roseville are facing several
issues (Tarrant et al. 2014). These issues include economic issues, socio-cultural issues and
environmental issues, which are affecting the accommodation providing industry of Sydney thus,
lowering the amount of profit generated from the operations of these accommodation providers
to the tourists. Tranquillity At Roseville is also being affected by these challenges in Sydney
tourism sector mentioned below-
Demand: Over the years, the number of tourists visiting Sydney has been decreased
tremendously. The reason can be lack of marketing of tourism programs which are mostly
responsible for drawing tourists from all over the world. Tourists also visit a country due to
attend particular events or office conferences (Bramwell, 2015). From the lowering number of
visitors coming for official purpose, it can be assumed that the companies headquartered in
Sydney are organising the conferences or meetings at some other country and Sydney is
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experiencing lesser number of official visitors. Generally, visitors coming for official purpose do
not stay longer, it takes one or two days to fulfil their purpose, and then they leave Sydney. The
accommodation providers are not being benefitted by the tourists who used to come and stay
longer to explore the city with their family or friends. The less number of international and
domestic visitors are making the accommodation providers in Sydney think about their source of
earning in near future if the situation remains same (Carr, Ruhanen & Whitford, 2016). The
number of people staying in tourist accommodations has drastically fallen, Tranquillity At
Roseville is also being affected by the same.
Infrastructure and product: Being the gateway to Australia, a vast number of people travel
through Sydney. To drive demand and increase visitation, the development of new infrastructure
and product is much required. According to a study it has been found that within 2020, the 6am-
12pm noon flight seats and 4pm-7pm afternoon flight seats will be fully allocated and there will
be a heavy flow of visitors passing through Sydney airport. The study also reveals that by 2035,
the Sydney airport capacity issue will lead to mismanagement of old services and also the airport
will be unable to take over new services due to heavy pressure of halting passengers. The airport
capacity must be increased in order to handle such huge flow of passengers waiting in Sydney
airport (Li & Hunter, 2015). Improvement in accessing transport modes in city is of much
importance in order to ensure growing number of tourists. Tourists driving to Sydney and driving
around Sydney should be satisfied. As cruise shipping is on a high at Sydney, Sydney Harbour
Bridge should not create hindrance, thus new ship terminals should be made to put up with the
situation.
Supply: Development of new tourist accommodations across Sydney is facing a hard time,
hence, affecting the overall revenue of Sydney generated from the operations of these tourist
accommodation providers like Tranquillity At Roseville. The possible barriers behind this issue
are hereby.
Development Barriers such as-
1) Competition with the usage of other lands,
2) Tremendously high cost of lands,
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3) Longer development time frames leading to increased capital cost and investment
payback period,
4) Difficulty in securing finances,
5) High and ever increasing construction costs.
Operational barriers such as-
1) Lack of investment in tourism infrastructure,
2) High fixed costs,
3) Long term performance,
4) Volatility of the revenue.
The business operations of Tranquillity At Roseville is greatly affected by all these above
mentioned barriers, creating a big question mark in the accommodation providers operating in
Sydney.
Assessment of operation
As the Tranquillity At Roseville is facing specific challenges in continuing its business operations
seamlessly and maximizing their profit margin, Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) has
certain criterion with which the situation can be assessed further. The criterion for the hotel
industry which also covers Tranquillity At Roseville are followed hereby-
 Sustainability management system: is clearly documented; covers social, cultural,
quality, human rights, economic, health and safety issues; includes consideration of risk
management; monitors continuous improvement of sustainability performance
(Conaghan & Hanrahan, 2010).
 Legal compliance: a list is maintained, consisting all applicable legal requirements;
compliance with those requirements in shown through certificates or other documentary
evidences. Reporting and communication: regular reports on sustainability performance; reporting,
in internal and external communication material, of sustainability policies and actions.
 Staff engagement: staff involvement evidence; records of on-the-job training and courses
including attendance levels; staff training and guidance materials; staff hold certificates.
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 Customer experience: customer feedback system; recording of negative feedbacks and
evidence of corrective measures taken.
 Accurate promotion: images provided are of actual facilities provided and experiences
offered; sustainability claims based on past performance records (Levy & Duverger,
2010).
 Buildings and infrastructure: includes sub-criterions like compliance. Impact and
integrity, sustainable practices and materials, access for all (including the ones with
special needs).
 Land, water and property rights: documentation of land ownership and tenure rights, and
also user and access rights for key resources; documentary evidence of consultation,
communication, and engagement with local & indigenous communities, and also free,
informed and prior consent from local communities (Lew et al. 2016).
 Information and interpretation: staff training in accordance to natural and cultural
heritage of local area; knowledge regarding behavioural traits of local area is conveyed to
visitors.
 Destination engagement: organisation attends meetings concerning sustainable tourism
in that destination (as per the given context, Sydney).
In case of Tranquillity At Roseville, all these criterion are imposed and the management tries to
meet each of the criteria at their level best.
Strengths and weaknesses
Tranquillity At Roseville is a popular accommodation provider in Sydney with vast number of
positive reviews and feedbacks from their customers stating how their description matches with
their offerings (Modica, 2015). As it is known, no business is perfect; Tranquillity At Roseville is
having ceratin drawbacks as well.
The strengths of Tranquillity At Roseville –
Environmental management: Tranquillity At Roseville is careful when it comes to use
environment-friendly tools to make the stay comfortable for the visitors. Energy efficient light at
every room to minimize power consumption at the hotel is indeed a sustainable step (dos Santos,
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Méxas & Meiriño, 2017). Also the hotel is having separate power off button beside the door of
every room, so that if the visitor leaves for the day without turning off any of the electrical
equipments, a hotel staff can easily use that power button to switch off the power of that
particular room. Also Tranquillity At Roseville has a well-structured garbage disposal system
which is not connected to the sea, rather it recycles the garbage into fertilizers. With this water
pollution can be prevented.
Interpretation and education: As most of the visitors come to Sydney for the first time for
holidaying purpose, they do not have knowledge about the cultural and natural heritages of the
city. Internet is helpful but not entirely as the importance of those heritages can only be
conveyed by local guides well equipped with the knowledge about cultural and natural heritage
Sydney is having. Tourists are also eager to know the brief history behind significant monuments
(Dredge & Jamal, 2011). Tranquillity At Roseville has a well-trained group of guides who
provide the tourists with immense knowledge regarding the significant places of Sydney. Thus,
with the staff training program held by Tranquillity At Roseville, meeting the expectations of the
visitors become easier.
Customer satisfaction: with the efficiency of management and staffs of Tranquillity At
Roseville, customers are satisfied which generates a large number of positive feedbacks from
customers’ side.
The weaknesses of Tranquillity At Roseville –
Working with local communities: Apart from local guides, local people and goods are not
utilized properly. Most of the decorative as well as furnishing items of Tranquillity At Roseville
are highly expensive and imported from Melbourne and most of the staff stays far from the place
where the hotel is situated (Bricker, 2012).
Responsible marketing: Although the hotel is amazing, the description available online does
not do justice to the hotel presentation. Also, the link between local attractions with the hotel is
necessary too in order to make the customers understand the reasons to stay at Tranquillity At
Roseville leaving all other hotels in Sydney.
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Contribution to conservation: Tranquillity At Roseville is basically focusing on their own profit
maximization, not overall enhancement of the facilities involved in the tourism sector of Sydney.
Potential improvement
On the basis of the three weak areas of Tranquillity At Roseville, it can be said that the hotel
needs to focus on responsible marketing to enhance the advantages they can provide to the
visitors. The hotel description on internet should include special amenities rendered by the hotel
and also highlight the key areas which satisfy the question ‘what makes Tranquillity At Roseville
superior than other hotels in Sydney?’. Moreover, Tranquillity At Roseville should be thinking
about flourishing the local market by buying local products and hiring hotel staff from local area,
so that the local area could be benefitted from the business operations run by Tranquillity At
Roseville. The local community is a crucial part of any business and it is the responsibility of the
business to take care of the well-being of the local community people (Edgell Sr, 2016). Also,
Tranquillity At Roseville should implement actions which can contribute to the conservation,
which can include provisioning of physical, financial or in-kind assistance.
Conclusion
Tranquillity At Roseville is facing a lot of challenges in the current scenario of visitor-hotel ratio
in Sydney. The concerned hotel is having some outstanding strength and also some serious
weaknesses. Required steps should be taken by the management of Tranquillity At Roseville to
overcome those weaknesses after assessing the situation thoroughly. This report highlighted the
key areas to be improved and also preventive measures which can be taken to ensure seamless
and sustainable operations (Ruhanen et al. 2015). Hence, with proper application of sustainable
principles Tranquillity At Roseville can grow up in coming years with more sustainable
implementations from their part.
References
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industry: examination of sustainable tourism criteria. In International CHRIE Conference-
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Lew, A. A., Ng, P. T., Ni, C. C., & Wu, T. C. (2016). Community sustainability and resilience:
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Bricker, K. S. (2012). Trends and Issues for Ecotourism & Sustainable Tourism.
Modica, P. (2015). Sustainable Tourism Management and Monitoring. Destination, Business and
Stakeholder Perspectives. FrancoAngeli.
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sustainable tourism research: A 25-year bibliometric analysis. Journal of Sustainable
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Zealand. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 22(3), 403-420.
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Miller, D., Merrilees, B., & Coghlan, A. (2015). Sustainable urban tourism: Understanding and
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