UK Tourism Sustainability: A Case Study of British Airways Challenges

This report investigates the challenges faced by the UK business and tourism industry in ensuring future sustainability, with a specific focus on British Airways. It explores the concept of sustainability within the UK tourism context, evaluates the benefits of sustainability for British Airways, and recommends ways for the airline to overcome associated challenges. The research employs qualitative methods and secondary data analysis to understand the impact of sustainability on business performance, emphasizing the importance of reducing environmental impact and promoting economic benefits for destinations. The report concludes that sustainability is crucial for the UK tourism industry, offering growth opportunities and contributing to a better environment, while highlighting the need for businesses to manage sustainability effectively to achieve long-term success. Desklib provides access to this document and many other solved assignments to help students in their academic journey.

Foundation Year Research
Project

Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................3
Topic...........................................................................................................................................3
Background of the topic and organisation..................................................................................3
Research Aim..............................................................................................................................3
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................3
Research problem........................................................................................................................3
Research questions......................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY ...........................................................................................4
CHAPTER THREE: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................5
Explain the concept of sustainability in context with the UK tourism industry.........................5
What are the challenges faced by the business and tourism industry of the UK while ensuring
future sustainability.....................................................................................................................6
What are the benefits of sustainability for British Airways........................................................6
What are the recommended ways that British Airways could use for overcoming challenges
associated with the future sustainability.....................................................................................6
CHAPTER FOUR : RESEARCH USING SECONDARY DATA.................................................6
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION ................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Topic
To identify the challenges faced by the business and tourism industry of the UK while ensuring
future sustainability
Background of the topic and organisation
Sustainability in aviation industry is defined as using of various measures by which
negative environmental impact can be minimised and at the same time business benefits can also
be attained. In the current time the major emphasis of aviation industry is to use such processes
by which they can develop scale to reduce carbon usage (Ghaderi and et. al., 2019) . The current
report is based on British Airways which is a flag carrier airline within United Kingdom. The
organisation is having their main hub at Heathrow airport. The company is having global
business operations and they are trying to serve community and planet with the inclusion of
sustainability within their business.
Research Aim
To determine the impact of sustainability on business performance of UK tourism industry: A
study on British Airways
Research objectives
 To develop a basic understanding of sustainability in context with the UK tourism
industry
 To determine the challenges faced by the business and tourism industry of the UK while
ensuring future sustainability
 To evaluate the benefits of sustainability for British Airways
 To recommend the ways that British Airways could use for overcoming challenges
associated with the future sustainability
Research problem
The major challenge faced by aviation industry in current time is to acquire such
resources by which they can manage current and future sustainability. In this manner the industry
is taking various issues in their business operations such as noise, emission and fuel burn and for

managing sustainability the industry is trying to work on above mentioned issues so that negative
impact over the environment can be mitigated.
Research questions
 Explain the concept of sustainability in context with the UK tourism industry
 What are the challenges faced by the business and tourism industry of the UK while
ensuring future sustainability
 What are the benefits of sustainability for British Airways
 What are the recommended ways that British Airways could use for overcoming
challenges associated with the future sustainability
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is defined as the chapter which is emphasised over such methods
that are used in order to analyse data in desired manner. This includes various approaches and
practices of research methodologies which are elaborated as under along with their
justifications. In the current research, the researcher has conducted qualitative research choice so
that to gain in-depth knowledge and to use non-numerical methods within research. Qualitative
research choice is accurate within this research as this leads into gaining detailed information on
the topic of sustainability used within tourism industry (Aspers and Corte, 2019). Secondary data
collection methods are also used within the research so that researcher may get assistance in
order to collect data related with research questions. This is regarded as the easiest method in
which using different websites, books and journals information can be gathered. The sources
used within the current research is websites, journals and books. The major benefit of secondary
data is this it helps in collecting relevant information to the research topic within minimal time
gap. Thematic analysis is used within evaluation method s that information can be processed in
systematic and appropriate manner (Allan, 2020). Under research strategy systematic literature
review is selected so that second-hand information can be gathered in significant manner.
Gantt Chart
This is the form of bar chart which is focused on project scheduling. The chart was
propounded by Henry Gantt. This chart is helpful in showing the relationship between various
activities and time needed for covering those activities. In this Gantt chart activities are divided

on the basis of nature of the activities along with enough time duration is given to each activities
so that in systematic manner research can be executed.
CHAPTER THREE: LITERATURE REVIEW
Explain the concept of sustainability in context with the UK tourism industry
According to Font, Garay and Jones, (2016), the concept of sustainability is associated
with various dimensions such as using such aspects by which maximum benefits can be given to
natural environment and communities. The industry of tourism is in the need of sustainability in
vast manner so that using various practices benefits can be given to future generations.

What are the challenges faced by the business and tourism industry of the UK while ensuring
future sustainability
According to Tan and et. al., (2017), there are various challenges which are being faced
by UK at the time of ensuring future sustainability. In this the prominent challenge is related
with getting aligned with social trends. This is a difficult task that to align business functions as
along with pertained social trends and this way this may impact the business function and
industry of tourism in vast manner. On the other hand, businesses face the issue of managing
sustainability programmes in which businesses are facing issue of managing these features.
What are the benefits of sustainability for British Airways
According to Chan and Hsu, (2016), the major benefit to sustainability is related with
providing safe environment to the future generations and for this reason sustainability is the
current trend which is used by every business. This is analysed that for British-Airways the
major benefit of sustainability is that the company is ensuring their community that they are
using such practices to provide well-being to their customer and society. These are the practices
which are helpful in intensifying customer coverage of the organisation in desired manner.
What are the recommended ways that British Airways could use for overcoming challenges
associated with the future sustainability
According to Juvan and Dolnicar, (2017), there are various ways that can be used by
British-Airways in order to mitigate challenges related with sustainability and the prominent in
this is providing awareness to people so that people may get to know about sustainability and its
benefits to the business. Sustainability promotes better economy so that by keeping all the
dimensions in accurate manner challenges related to sustainability can be addressed.
CHAPTER FOUR : RESEARCH USING SECONDARY DATA

According to above detailed information it is being identified that sustainability plays an
important role in tourism industry. Sustainability in tourism industry generally means reducing
negative impact from environment and offering more benefits to community and economy. The
main motive of sustainable tourism is to provide support to local economies, help in creating
better environment and gaining economic advantage for the destination. Tourism industry must
focus on implementing sustainable practices by reducing waste and spending. It also helps in
improving quality of work and generates local jobs for people. The sustainable tourism helps in
increasing the positive feeling inside the society for particular place (Bodhanwala and
Bodhanwala, 2021). When company implements sustainable practice it helps in increasing the
profitability and growth of business. In order to promote sustainability it is necessary to focus on
spreading awareness on sustainable tourism, support local areas, supports legislation that
promotes sustainability and also support the fight against illegal trade. Sustainable tourism helps
in reducing pollution and also protects and preserve value tradition. The responsibility of
sustainable tourism include protecting environment, natural resources and wildlife, bringing
tourist and local communities together for mutual benefits, creating inclusive and accessible
tourism opportunities and conserving cultural heritage and creating authentic tourist experience.
There are various challenges which are faced by tourism industry while ensuring future
sustainability such as travel marketing, health and wellness, working conditions, security and
cross border regulations and infrastructure issues. These issues create a great impact on the
growth and brand image of company. It is the responsibility of organization to focus on health
and wellness of employees and customers in order to increase the profitability and growth of
tourism business. In order to attract customers, it is important to focus on providing services that
prevents from spread of disease. British Airways also gain various benefits while implementing
sustainable practices such as it support local community, improve the brand reputation, allows
travelers to be more conscious of their choices and also keep the environment clean. Sustainable
practice helps in increasing the productivity of business and also it enhance the business ability
to comply with regulations (Guaita Martínez and et. al., 2021). Company implementing
sustainable practices helps in attracting employees and investors and also reduces wastage.
Embracing sustainability in tourism industry helps in engaging employees and increase the brand
loyalty and awareness. There are various ways through which company can overcome the
challenges associated with sustainability such as using sustainability as unique selling point,

communicating differently, improving management skills, offering first aid facilities, doctor
consultancy, following regulations of cross borders and implementing advanced technology that
reduces wastage. Through implementing these factors, company can focus on overcoming the
issues which they face while ensuring future sustainability. If organization focuses on improving
the management skills employees can provide better services to guest which attracts maximum
number of people towards the brand. It is the responsibility of British Airways to provide
medical facility to customers and employees so that they feel safe while travelling. Organization
must also focus on implementing right technology that reduces the wastage and improve the
image of brand (Cotterell and et. al., 2020)
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION
From the above discussion this can be concluded that For tourism industry of UK
sustainability is important as this helps in creating better environment and provide several
economic benefits to the destinations as well. With the help of developing sustainability this is
easier for the business to manage their growth opportunities and acquire success as well.
Sustainability helps in promoting better future in which environment protection can also be
provided.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Allan, G., 2020. Qualitative research. In Handbook for research students in the social
sciences (pp. 177-189). Routledge.
Aspers, P. and Corte, U., 2019. What is qualitative in qualitative research. Qualitative
sociology, 42(2), pp.139-160.
Bodhanwala, S. and Bodhanwala, R., 2021. Exploring relationship between sustainability and
firm performance in travel and tourism industry: a global evidence. Social
Responsibility Journal.
Chan, E.S. and Hsu, C.H., 2016. Environmental management research in
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Cotterell, D and et. al., 2020. Cultivating conscientious tourism caretakers: A phenomenographic
continuum towards stronger sustainability. Current Issues in Tourism, 23(8), pp.1004-
1020.
Font, X., Garay, L. and Jones, S., 2016. Sustainability motivations and practices in small tourism
enterprises in European protected areas. Journal of Cleaner production, 137, pp.1439-
1448.
Ghaderi and et. al., 2019. Corporate social responsibility and hotel performance: A view from
Tehran, Iran. Tourism Management Perspectives, 29, pp.41-47.
Guaita Martínez, J. M and et. al., 2021. Social Sustainability on Competitiveness in the Tourism
Industry: Toward New Approach?.
Juvan, E. and Dolnicar, S., 2017. Drivers of pro-environmental tourist behaviours are not
universal. Journal of cleaner production, 166, pp.879-890.
Tan and et. al., 2017. The impact of the dimensions of environmental performance on firm
performance in travel and tourism industry. Journal of environmental management, 203,
pp.603-611.