Responsible Tourism Essay Example

style="text-align: justify">The concept of ‘natural’ comes into people’s mind and it also tie with a range of ‘green products’. ‘Organic’, ‘Environmental friendly’, ‘fair trade’, or other green words imply care of environment become demanding. Messages from not only green groups, NGOs or government but also advertising and media, green has changed into a trend. The needs of tourists are changed. These numbers of change allow responsible tourism makes business sense. Consumers demand for a deeper engagement with destinations and local people. They originate markets like fair trade and local sourced.

They want a ‘guilt free holidays. As responsible tourism is demanding, it is a good opportunity to develop it and let it become a business isn’t it? Goodwin (2009) said: ‘“However, I am pleased to say that many successful companies, large and small, are clearly demonstrating that responsible tourism can and is an important part of a successful sales and marketing strategy. ” For businesses too, responsible tourism makes sense as there is no contradiction between business and responsibility which the principles of responsible tourism in which balance economic, social and environmental.

He also points out moving to responsible models offers cost savings, helps motivate staff and helps meet customer expectations. Besides, adopting responsible tourism makes sense for tourism businesses as it may allow them the licence to operate in destinations, he added. Once again, according to, Mr Hiran Cooray, Deputy Chairman of the Sri Lanka-based Jetwing Hotels Ltd, said: “In the future, if you are not involved in responsible tourism you may not be in business. The chairman of World Travel Market, Jeffery (2008) also states that ‘if tourism businesses want to

continue to operate, then responsible tourism is the way to go. ’ Apart from the point of views of professors, authors or writers, it is not hard to see that when companies doing their business in a much responsible or ethical way, consumers are much willing to buy their products or services and have a positive feeling of the company as well. Developing responsible tourism becomes a kind of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities and all other stakeholders. This understanding of CSR encourages a framework that allows businesses to have the smallest degree of negative impact in their operations, and the largest degree of positive impact. By doing CSR, many benefits will be brought, not only the tangible but also the intangible especially reputation.

Firstly, CSR can be seen as a reputation management. It offers a means by which companies manage and influence the attitudes and perceptions of their stakeholders. . Consumers are more likely to invest in and buy from companies which they trust, and there is evidence that engaging in CSR can help build a positive brand image in the mind of consumers and by enhancing the relationship with its stakeholders, it can have an added-value effect.

From the information of Annual CSR study, MORI, (2002), there is 44% of the British public believed that buying a company’s product that the company showed a high degree of social responsibility is very important and near 90% of consumers would have a more positive image of a

company which doing good things to the world and a company’s responsibilities to society, environmental and labour practices are all seen by the public across 20 countries as more important than its economic contribution ( Global CSR Monitor, 2001).

While doing activities such as involvement with local community, charity or education can let the company has a great opportunity to generate positive press coverage. Consumers are more likely to invest in and buy from companies which they trust, and there is evidence that engaging in CSR can help build a positive brand image in the mind of consumers. CSR can also be a non-price competition that makes you more competitive and reduces the risk of sudden damage to the reputation. In this rationale, CSR activities are a way to defensively shield a company from PR disasters.

And in this sense, CSR can be a form of risk management and a manner to gain the trust of consumers and cause public motives. CSR can also lead to direct improvements on the bottom line. By anticipating can reduce future costs of compliance, understanding how your company uses materials, manages energy and waste can reduce operational costs and integrating environmental specifications into new assets can reduce lifecycle costs and improve efficiency. It opens opportunities to reduce present and future costs to the business at the same time.

When practicing CSR in the environment way, reducing resource use as an example, it doesn’t just help the environment because of less wastage and emission; it also saves the company’s money. So, how does CSR can be matched with the principles of responsible tourism? Going back to the

responsible tourism principles, it is more than a form of tourism as it represents an approach to engaging with tourism, be that as a tourist, a business, and locals at a destination or any other tourism stakeholder which aim to maintain economy, society and environment equally.

Responsible Tourism is an aspiration that can be realised in different ways in different originating markets and in the diverse destinations of the world (Goodwin, 2002). According to Cape Town Declaration (2002), it has defined responsible tourism clearly. By CSR, as it is an ethical and responsible action, it can achieve this principle. For example, company reduces their use of resources, run some environmental friendly scheme in order to minimize the pollution; it is a way to protect the environment. It is not only benefit the environmental part but also economic.

From the social aspect, when company doing their CSR that involve community like building schools, donating money and so on, it generates economic benefits for local people and enhances the well-being of host communities. By holding fair trade, improving worker’s working safety; it can improve working conditions and access to the industry. As CSR can be done in different categories, sections or forms, it can involve different parts of the destination, from economy to society, from environment to culture.

Importantly, CSR always benefit the company itself and the advantages it brings is not countable since intangible benefits are come together. Also, when there is a balance of society, economy and environment, it can help running a much sustainable development that everyone is hoping for. Although mass tourism still got a great proportion of the whole

tourism industry and it has been seen as a faster way to make money, it brings too many negative impacts. The most important is mass tourism cannot run as sustainable as responsible tourism.

It is because when the consuming is overloaded; the destination will be ruined since damages of environment, culture, society and so on which are the important assets of it. On the other hand, responsible tourism makes business sense because it facilitates the development of better experiences which encourage repeat bookings and referrals. It is also enables companies to engage in non-price competition which enables them to maintain margins and avoid squeezing their suppliers; to provide a better experience, a higher value experience increasing the spend in the local economy.

This can also contribute to encouraging repeat business and extending length of stay. Moreover, when responsible tourism is now demanding, why shouldn’t we make it a big business? And even though responsible tourism is not a new thing or a blueprint since it has been started for decades, responsible tourism is becoming a trend. There is a quote from Virginia Hadsell, founder of the Centre for Responsible Tourism: “You must know the dark side of tourism! It grows. But there are encouraging pockets of responsible opportunities for travel that benefit both host and guest. And now, responsible tourism is a great opportunity for developing which is advantageous to both host and guest.

Practicing responsible tourism can gain competitive advantages over their competitors by applying CSR. It also achieves cordial relations with external stakeholders by clinging to the broadly accepted values, norms and regulations. Therefore, the implementation of responsible tourism principles

makes business sense than traditional mass tourism from the time being. However, it is important to noted that even though responsible tourism make better business sense, can it be successful really depends on how it runs uch as the company’s marketing strategy , business plan and so on.

If there is nothing or poor support by other elements, responsible tourism will be failed either. As Goodwin (2009) said: ‘Many businesses are working towards incorporating sustainability into the core of their products. Quite often these products are the result of a well-thought sustainability concept, and yet the entrepreneurs behind it fail to reach the marketplace, because they lack marketing expertise and knowledge of the tourism industry’s distribution channels. ’ Last but not least, business sense would only be a sense and become useless without a good planning.