Sustainable tourism implementation for small accommodation establishments in South Africa

Abstract

Tourism is viewed as an important industry to help local economies overcome poverty and low rates of employment. The economic benefits of a growing tourism industry cannot be disputed in a South Africa where unemployment levels remain above international averages. However, whether South Africa is successfully exploiting opportunities to grow the industry sustainably remains questionable. Many attempts have been made to help the industry implement sustainable tourism practices, especially amongst accommodation establishments. However, policies formulated, initiatives designed and current industry norms and standards make very little distinction between various sizes and categories of establishments. As a result, smaller establishments are lumped together with larger establishments and solutions developed do not address the unique needs of this sector. This study introduces the concept of a smaller accommodation establishment (SAE). While the adoption of sustainable tourism practices within tourism remains unsatisfactory, this study focuses on illustrating the importance of the SAE sector specifically within the tourism sector. It proposes that SAEs are defined and categorised in a format that will allow for greater comparisons in performance – both in relation to each other and in relation to their larger counterparts. This will also allow for the collection of more meaningful data towards establishing baselines and benchmarks. Through a detailed literature review, this study investigates reasons why the adoption of sustainable tourism practices has been lower than desired by SAEs. The research first and foremost focuses on how to define sustainable tourism and responsible tourism and how to define an SAE so as to create a context for the remainder of the research. The literature review used the Porter’s Five Forces model to analyse the relative sustainability of the sector, and proposed the main barriers to implementation of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs. It then set out to answer the question: "What framework and mechanisms could be used to help SAEs overcome the barriers to implementing sustainable tourism, thus enabling sustainable growth and development of SAEs as a sub-sector of the tourism industry?" In answering the above question, the study used the Delphi method of reaching consensus to test the views industry experts in relation to the definition and categorisation of SAEs, the size of the sector, the relative importance of the sector in the overall South African economy as well as the potential barriers to SAEs implementing sustainable tourism practices. The study then tested these findings through a broad industry survey that collected qualitative and quantitative data from SAE owners and managers across South Africa. The findings of the broad industry survey confirmed the findings of the literature review and industry expert questionnaires. It added additional data that provided perspectives on the uptake of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs and helped to set some baselines for the SAE sector. It also added additional dimensions to be considered in the development of the framework. Finally, the research utilised focus groups and individual interviews with SAE owners and managers to determine the validity of the findings from the previous sections. From the inputs of the literature review and the three data collection phases, this research develops a comprehensive framework for the implementation of sustainable tourism practices amongst SAEs. The framework is a flexible, adaptable and scalable tool that assists in communicating a specific approach that could be utilised by many role players in the SAE sustainable tourism implementation arena, including the SAE owners, public sector entities, private sector business, industry professionals and community members. The essence of the proposed framework is to support the implementation of sustainable tourism practise amongst SAEs, thus enhancing the overall sustainability of the smaller accommodation sector while also addressing the sustainability of the cluster. The framework includes recommendations on how SAEs should be defined and categorised, as well as how sustainable tourism should be defined. The use of the proposed framework helps to draw the attention of sustainability efforts to clusters of SAEs rather than individual businesses and adds to local competitiveness through engaging the supply chains of accommodation establishments. Combining mechanisms such as incentives and change processes, route development and policy formulation guides the framework to provide collaborative holistic approaches to overcoming the barriers of sustainable tourism practices. The framework also recommends holistic indicators of success that do not only represent the performance of individual businesses, but also of business clusters, the tourism sector and the impacted communities. Within clusters, greater cohesion amongst role players will provide greater negotiation power in various aspects such as cost reduction and more favourable policy formulation processes which involves a greater base of role players. Through the adoption of guiding questions within the framework, each of the role players is able to take responsibility their actions and decisions