Hotels as Critical Hubs for Destination Disaster Resilience: An Analysis of Hotel Corporations’ CSR Activities Supporting Disaster Relief and Resilience

Sarah Dobie,Rick Lagiewski,Jennifer Schneider,Muhammet Kesgin

doi:10.3390/infrastructures3040046

Sarah Dobie, Rick Lagiewski + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/infrastructures3040046

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Journal: Infrastructures	Publication Date: Oct 18, 2018
Citations: 18	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract

Disaster management has begun to examine the unique role of the private sector in disaster relief. The hotel and lodging industry is an especially critical infrastructure for community disaster relief and resilience, providing many lifeline services in addition to core skills and competencies contributing to the community’s social and human capital. Social and human capital empower the community to better cope with disturbance, and companies’ efforts to build social and human capital are often tied to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) management systems. A framework was developed to evaluate the management system maturity of the hotel and lodging industry’s CSR management for disaster relief and resilience. An analysis of three hotel and lodging corporations was performed to understand the current state of the industry. While many hotel properties are engaging in CSR activities during disaster relief, the analysis revealed that corporate management systems have room for maturation and growth to support the resilience of their community.

Highlights

Natural disasters are becoming increasingly frequent and severe, posing a major threat to the human population [1,2]
This paper develops and pilots a methodology to assess the maturity of the disaster relief and resilience dimension of corporate social responsibility (CSR) management systems in the hotel and lodging industry, focusing on contributions to social and human capital
The hotel and lodging industry has contributed to disaster relief and resilience at the property level by leveraging their core skills and competencies

Summary

Introduction

Natural disasters are becoming increasingly frequent and severe, posing a major threat to the human population [1,2]. Communities have started to focus on fostering resilience to prepare for responding and recovering from disasters. The Community and Regional Resilience Institute (CARRI) defines resilience as, “to anticipate risk, limit impact, and bounce back, [using] survival, adaptability, evolution, and growth in the face of turbulent change” [4]. The Rockefeller Foundation, as the founder of 100 Resilient Cities, provides another definition of resilience in urban areas: “the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience” [5]. All three definitions capture the concept that resilience means that the community must have the capacity to survive and cope with disasters, and to adapt and continue to thrive

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