Case Study of Sustainable Enterprise

According to Buckley (2012), sustainable tourism has recently grown in importance as a concept for achieving sustainable businesses in the travel and tourism sector. There are rules for creating sustainable tourism as well as management techniques appropriate for forms of tourism like mass tourism, segments, and destinations (Buckley 2012, 528). Utilizing resources in the environment as efficiently as possible, recognizing the sociocultural distinctiveness of host communities, encouraging long-term economic development, and equitable distribution of socioeconomic benefits to all stakeholders are the three main sustainability principles that sustainable enterprises in the tourism industry adhere to (Nechifor 2014, 106). Sustainable enterprises have established a balance of the underlying dimensions thus fostering their long-term sustainability.

Overview of the Enterprises

Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa

This enterprise is an exotic and authentic destination located in Daintree rainforest in the Australian state of Queensland. Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa was founded by Maloney who is a local of Daintree. It supports sustainable tourism, offers sustainable luxury, rated the most environmentally friendly destination, employees and staff are from the local community, and participate in local projects as part of their corporate social responsibility (Daintree Ecolodge & Spa, 2017). Australia has a population of 24.622 million, GDP of $1.56 trillion, import of $192 billion and export of $190 billion. Australia's tourism industry contributed 10.9% of the overall GDP in 2016.

Lapa Rios

Lapa Rios is a sustainable hostel located on the Osa Penisula in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica. The hostel was founded by two American citizens in 1990 with the aim of creating a private reserve in Costa Rica attributed to its unexploited wilderness (Lapa Rios, 2017). The lodge was opened in 1993 pioneered as eco-tourism resort protecting biodiversity keeping the rainforest. The hostel provided job opportunities to the Osa Penisula with notable unemployment levels. The country population is 4.857 Million, $57.436 billion GDP, imports of $15 billion and exports of $12.6 billion. The tourism industry of this country contributes 13.4% of the GDP.

Kasbah du Toubkal

The underlying sustainable enterprise is located in the high Atlas Mountains in Morocco. It was founded by two British brothers who were traveling to Berber mountains (Kasbah Du Toubkal, 2017). The retreat us build at the top of Toubkal National Park and this has provided convenience to the visitors. The enterprise is a small accommodation of 14 rooms for profit making. It is also notable that it is also part in non-profit making activities. Morocco has a population of 35.28 Million, $101.445 billion GDP, $36.7 imports, and $26.8 billion exports. The tourism industry in Morocco contributes 18.5% of the entire GDP.

Comparison of Management Policies and Practices

Daintree Eco-lodge Spa adopts employment practices promoting gender diversity of both males and females in management and subordinate roles. The underlying management practice ensures that all employees are offered equal opportunities (Boatright 2006, 112). The employment diversity policy counter the stereotyping attitudes attached to male and female dominance (Chaudhary & Gupta 2010, 31).This practice promotes sustainability through workforce enrichment, efficiency, and creativity attributed to gender balance. Lapa Rios adopts employment practices that promote not only employees welfare but also improving infrastructure and education of the host communities. The social environment has influenced these enterprise management policies and its interconnection with the community. Lapa Rios policies facilitate enterprise sustainability attributed to the benefits provided by the tourism sector relationship with the communities through employment, offering scholarships and supporting education (Freeman 2010, 52). The Kasbah Du Toubkal has established management practices and policies that focus on corporate social responsibility. The enterprise sustainability pertinent to its policies and practices is attributed to fostered stakeholder networks involving its business activities, the local and communities (Lähdesmäki & Suutari, 2012, 484). Notable policies and practices of Kasbah Du Toubkal are helping the community through support of livestock economic activities as opposed to offering scholarships and education.

Comparing Daintree Eco-Lodge Resort management practices and policies to those of Lapa Rios, the focus is put on bridging socioeconomic disparities while Lapa Rios focuses on locals and community empowerment.Daintree Eco-Lodge Spa policies focus on elevating education standards and providing employment opportunities, and its management practices aim to increase profits and to minimize costs. Kasbah Du Toubkal and Lapa Rios focuses on social policies of improving the community living standards through employment creation and adding purchasing power thus improving the local community economy (Choudhury and Goswami 2013, 67).

Sustainability Dimension and a Balanced Approach towards Addressing Each Dimension

Regarding the above comparison of management practices and policies of the three enterprises, it is evident that each enterprise ascribes to the sustainability dimensions under tourism sector. The corporate sustainability dimensions entail the reporting frameworks and guidelines defining the economic, environmental, social performance as well as the financial performance of an organization. A balanced approach plays a significant role within an organization with a focus on achieving sustainability adopting a particular sustainability dimension. The underlying balanced approach is essential in addressing resistance challenges related to stand-alone corporate social responsibility initiatives as well as pointing out expected opportunities and challenges or threats (Jensen 2002, 240). In the context of the provided management practices and policies of Daintree Eco-lodge Spa, Lapa Rios and Kasbah Du Toubkal the sustainable tourism development dimensions relate to social, economic and environmental integrity.

A balanced approach to sustainable tourism dimensions is the focus on addressing the precise negative impacts of tourism on the host communities concerning ecosystem protection, promoting economic development and equity and fairness between and within generations. The balanced approach on each of the provided dimensions ensures balance of the enterprise economic welfare, utilization of local resources, well-being of the local host communities and cultural protection (Pineno 2013, 35). The balanced approaches pertinent to the sustainability dimensions brings positive impacts including growth of educational levels, cultural and economic aspects of the local communities.

The integration of sustainable dimensions within balanced approaches provides enterprises opportunities to incorporate sustainable management practices and policies in their systems (Friedman 2007, 176). These practices and policies should reflect the interrelation between the sustainable dimension and the adopted balanced approach. Sustainable development can be achieved through a balanced approach in managing tourism with the focus on promoting and sustaining local communities (Jensen 2002, 240).

Challenges Faced Achieving Sustainability

The challenges of achieving sustainability pertinent to Daintree Eco-Lodge Spa are associated to financial constraints. The underlying enterprise has bills amounting to millions attributed to events such as Cyclone Yasi. The eco-lodge Spa strives to achieve sustainability under constraint budget levels, and they are committed to their corporate social responsibility policies and practices. Regarding Lapa Rios, the challenges towards achieving sustainability are attributed to implementing the use of environmentally friendly renewable resources in its business operations (Liu 2003, 468). The Kasbah Du Toubkal's challenge of achieving sustainability is attributed to the local community culture. The local community mainly the Berbers has cultures that may not value some of the sustainable management practices and policies of the enterprise.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the three enterprises have made tremendous efforts is supporting sustainable tourism by adopting relevant sustainable management practices and policies. It is evident that the notable sustainable tourism developments achieved are attributed to participation and involvement of stakeholders mainly the local host communities. Although challenges pertinent to each enterprise exists, they have promoted sustainable tourism maintaining desired tourism satisfaction levels and focusing on their corporate social responsibility commitments and promoting sustainable tourism management practices and policies.

References

Boatright, J. R., 2006. What’s wrong and what’s right with stakeholder management. Journal of Private Enterprise, vol. 21, no. 2, pp.106-130.

Buckley, R., 2012. Sustainable tourism: Research and reality. Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 39, no. 2, pp.528-546.

Chaudhary, M. and Gupta, M., 2010. Gender equality in Indian hotel industry: A study of perception of male and female employees. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Systems, vol. 3. p. 31.

Choudhury, B. and Goswami, C., 2013. Tourism revenue leakage check. SCMS Journal of Indian Management, vol. 10, no. 1, p.67.

Freeman, R.E., 2010. Strategic management: A stakeholder approach. Cambridge university press.

Friedman, M., 2007. The social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, pp.173-178.

Jensen, M.C., 2002. Value maximization, stakeholder theory, and the corporate objective function. Business Ethics Quarterly, pp.235-256.

Lähdesmäki, M. and Suutari, T. 2012, Keeping at arm's length or searching for social proximity? corporate social responsibility as a reciprocal process between small businesses and the local community, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 108, no. 4, pp. 481-493.

Liu, Z., 2003. Sustainable tourism development: A critique. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 11, no. 6, pp.459-475.

Nechifor, C. I., 2014. Tourism and sustainable development. Implications at Local Community Level. Acta Universitatis Danubius. Economica, vol. 10, no. 5.

Pineno, C. J., 2013. Sustainability reporting by universities and corporations: An integrated approach or a separate category within the balanced scorecard. Journal of Business and Accounting, vol. 6, no. 1, p. 51.

Appendices

Appendix 1: Daintree Eco Lodge overview summary

Daintree Eco Lodge

Location

Located inside a rainforest in Daintree, Australia

Background infos

The Daintree Eco Lodge has been founded by two local who’s name Maloney.

The resort is on the middle of a rainforest every details inside are sustainable, they employ the local community and take part with local project

Population

24.127 Million

GDP

1.205 Trillion $US

Import and export 2015

Import : 192 Billion $US

Export : 190 Billion $US

Relationship to tourism

10.9% in 2016 of the GDP is provided by tourism industry

Appendix 2: Lapa Rios overview summary

Lapa Rios

Location

Located on the Osa Peninsula in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica

Background infos

Sustainable Hostel founded in 1990 by two American who would like to create a private reserve in one of Costa Rica’s most unspoiled wildernesses.

In 1993 the Lapa Rios lodge opened and was the pioneer in term of eco tourism resort. Lapa Rios has already protect some valuable biodiversity as keeping the rainforest. They also brought new job opportunities to Osa Peninsula which was a quiet place with a low employment.

Population

Million

4.857 Million

GDP

57.436 Billion $US

Import and export 2015

Import : 15 Billion $US

Export : 12.6 Billion $US

Relationship to tourism

13.4% in 2016 of the GDP is provided by tourism industry

Appendix 3: Kasbah Toubkal overview summary

Daintree Eco Lodge

Location

Located inside a rainforest in Daintree, Australia

Background infos

The Daintree Eco Lodge has been founded by two local who’s name Maloney.

The resort is on the middle of a rainforest every details inside are sustainable, they employ the local community and take part with local project

Population

24.127 Million

GDP

1.205 Trillion $US

Import and export 2015

Import : 192 Billion $US

Export : 190 Billion $US

Relationship to tourism

10.9% in 2016 of the GDP is provided by tourism industry