A key element in the sustainability of tourism enterprises is access. An enterprise may well be performing exceptionally well when judged on the basis of its environmental performance but rarely will this include how the customers travel to and within the destination. Thus although the travel element involved is not a direct aspect of most tourism enterprises, nevertheless it was a consideration in the research; for example, did the enterprises take any measures to encourage their customers to travel using alternative modes of transport to that of the car (Chapter 7)? However, this is very limited in the context of the travel element of tourism and all the more so when it comes to the enterprises in the study, especially given demand is predominantly domestic. Thus the scope of this chapter is broadened to bring into consideration wider issues and debate, for example the impact of different forms of transportation and consideration of alternative options and measures to promote reductions in fossil fuel consumption, thereby facilitating a more comprehensive discussion.
A recurrent theme throughout the preceding chapters is that of tourist demand. That tourists want, for example, tour operators to adopt environmentally responsible practices, destinations and their communities should benefit from tourism, local culture should be promoted and accommodation enterprises should have an accredited EMS eco-label. Furthermore, that tourists are willing to support some CSR actions, e.g. local community initiatives, conservation projects and carbon offsetting. It was also suggested, that tourism enterprises have a role to play in educating visitors in how to be more ‘environmentally friendly’ in their actions. The latter areas to some degree were investigated through the surveys and the findings are thus presented in Chapter 8. However, this does not address satisfactorily the former comments on tourists wanting such developments thus the scope of the chapter is broadened to bring into discussion what could be termed the greening of tourists. As Millman (1989) argued in the late 1980s, tourists are becoming ‘green conscious’ yet 10 years later, as Wright (1997) portrays, there was little evidence of this in the traditionally popular parts of the Mediterranean basins. Is the same true today? Chapter 9 serves to narrow the focus back on the enterprises and is based on the findings drawn from the explorations into the ‘awareness, perceptions and attitudes’ of the owners/managers of the enterprises. Their perceptions and attitudes, coupled with their level of awareness and knowledge, are a key factor to the introduction of EM and CSR practices and more widely the EP of the enterprise. As such, the attention here includes their awareness of environmental initiatives and potentially related, influential factors.
Within these chapters a range of factors influential to the adoption of many of the practices discussed emerge. This is recognized in Chapter 9 which seeks to draw out the main issues arising and identified as barriers to progress. Thus the chapter brings into contention policy and planning that directly relates to these issues; for example, as manifest in a plethora of international, intra- and national policy iterations relating to sustainability and climate change. Reflection on these barriers coupled with the fact that most enterprises involved in tourism supply are small/micro in size, under single ownership and invariably family businesses leads to substantive conclusions. The way they are managed and operated is largely based on the values and attitudes of the owners themselves, who are just as much a part of the local community as other people and families living in the same area. Equally, they are consumers and as such no doubt are similar in many ways in their general consumer behaviour, their purchasing and consumption patterns, and particularly applicable in this context, their environmental behaviour.
It is through discussion of this wider context of consumers and society that we seek to gain a better understanding of what progress may or may not have been made in regard to the environmental performance of these enterprises over the last 15 years. As the DETR (2000, p. 10, Para l. 41) opined some 10 years ago:
A number of the pressing problems identified [earlier] including climate change, traffic patterns and waste, will require significant behavioural change by businesses and the general public as well as by government. There is still widespread ignorance about the nature of some of these problems and the need for more sustainable solutions.
Overall, and in seeking to bring together the key issues that emerge from the findings, and discussion on tourism enterprises and sustainability, it is clear that addressing the environmental performance and within this context issues of sustainability is not just a matter of assessing the EP of tourism enterprises to ascertain what, if any, progress has been made since the early advocacy of such matters in the early 1990s, but also that this involves the consumption of tourism; thus the motivations of tourists and more generally consumers are also significant factors. Therefore furthering the objectives of sustainability involves a more complex solution than deepening the greenness of these enterprises.
In total these chapters seek to present a comprehensive analysis of those tourism enterprises, and the ways in which they are addressing sustainability, which constitute in numerical terms most of the supply of tourism products and services and most especially so when considered in the context of domestic tourism. Based that is on the longitudinal study of these enterprises in the UK that investigated their environmental performance and thus EMS and CSR practices over a period spanning 15 years. An additional strength of the text is that given the time frame involved, the discussion draws on sources from over the past 20 years to establish those policies, initiatives and issues pertinent to tourism enterprise throughout the period of the study. Further adding to the comprehensive analysis is that in the process due attention is given to other categories of tourism supply not included in the study per se, thus attention not only to the responses of the enterprises involved but also to national/multinational companies in the hospitality sector and also tour operators. Therefore seeking overall to establish a broad review of the responses of tourism enterprises to sustainability issues and developments. In the process contributing in some small measure to the paucity of research in this area of enquiry and addressing Buckley’s critique on the lack of research into the operations and practices of tourism SMEs with the accent on small/micro enterprises.
To what extent this has been achieved is very much for the reader to decide. There will no doubt be criticisms as to what should (or should not) have been included but such is the way with all academic texts to the well informed. Even allowing for the length available, constraints of space may still preclude further discussion of any one area.
The ultimate objective though is to stimulate thought on the many and diverse facets of tourism enterprise and environmental performance within the far broader framework of sustainability, thus not only potentially to establish a range of benchmarks and areas for future/further research but also to stimulate engagement with the issues arising and promote debate. To achieve such an outcome would indeed make this undertaking worthwhile.
Further Reading
For a very clear and comprehensive discussion on climate change see Giddens, A. (2009) The politics of climate change. Polity Press, London.
A comprehensive collection on the interrelationships between tourism and different environments and in different contexts is presented in Gossling, S. and Hall, C.M. (2006) Tourism & Global Environmental Change: Ecological, social, economic and political interrelationships. Routledge, New York.
For a good overview on the theme of tourism development and sustainability see Sharpley, R. (2009) Tourism Development and the Environment: Beyond Sustainability.