An investigation into responsible tourism practices in the South African hotel industry

M Van Der Merwe,A Wöcke

doi:10.4102/sajbm.v38i2.579

Abstract

This paper sheds light on the reasons for the limited uptake of responsible tourism initiative memberships by hotels in South Africa, despite South Africa being regarded as a leader in the field of responsible tourism policy, with the drafting of responsible tourism guidelines by the South African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). The International Centre for Responsible Tourism’s conference (hosted in South Africa) preceding the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002 resulted in the Cape Town Declaration, which was based on the guidelines developed by DEAT. There are currently two responsible tourism membership initiatives in South Africa. Non-experimental survey research was conducted among hotels about their understanding and implementation of responsible tourism practices. Sixty hotels responded to the survey, and it would appear that these hotels implement Corporate Social Responsibility/responsible tourism, though to varying extents. Many responding hotels do not participate in responsible tourism initiatives because of - amongst others - confusion about what the concept means, and a lack of awareness of such initiatives. This paper raises questions about the effectiveness of membership initiatives in promoting the implementation of responsible tourism practices and questions the importance of a common understanding and awareness of what responsible tourism entails in ensuring that policy is implemented.

Highlights

South Africa is faced with widespread unemployment and poverty and it is widely believed that the tourism industry can make a significant contribution to addressing these problems (e.g. Ashley, Roe & Goodwin, 2001)
To gauge whether respondents implemented any form of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), they were provided with the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism’s Responsible Tourism guidelines and asked whether their company implemented any of the guidelines
The publication of guidelines by the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) did not have a material influence on the adoption of responsible tourism elements on non-members and it is unlikely that the South African government is in a position to legislate in this regard

Summary

Introduction

South Africa is faced with widespread unemployment and poverty and it is widely believed that the tourism industry can make a significant contribution to addressing these problems (e.g. Ashley, Roe & Goodwin, 2001). The importance of responsible tourism was highlighted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 with Agenda 21 and the Rio Declaration, which articulated the main principles for sustainable development in the 21st century (WTTC et al, 2002). Despite the global focus on the tourism industry as part of the sustainability agenda at World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), there seem to be very few tourism companies participating in globally responsible tourism or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives such as the Global Compact Research amongst UK-based tour operators (Gordon, 2001) found that these tourism companies have been very slow in implementing socially responsible tourism principles in their businesses and there is little evidence that South Africa is different

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