The traditional marketing advantage of adhering to one or more sustainable practices and apart from them, along with business as usual is quickly changing to a powerful disadvantage of "being left behind" and seen as the hotel or hotel operator of yesterday.
Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Finn Partners Travel Practice webinar on the role of responsible tourism in driving recovery post-lockdown. I was joined by Fiona Jeffery OBE, Senior Partner, Finn Partners Global Responsibility Tourism Practice, Founder and Chairman of Just A Drop, alongside Amy Skelding, Senior Partner in our Travel Practice who moderated the session.
A few years ago, Marriott had a commercial link with a storyline about an elderly lady who stayed in a Marriott hotel because she just lost her house during a mountain fire and needed time to reflect and think about her future. In the video, this lady described the friendship and support she received from the hotel employees. I used this video several times in my marketing courses because of how it appeals to a higher level of human needs (Maslow).
In an unexpected turn of events, a group of rogue Pangolins have succeeded in stopping the Olympic Games (I never honestly expected to write that sentence).
There's no denying that the past weeks have been incredibly challenging and confusing for everyone in our industry, with new bookings almost coming to a halt, a surge in cancelations, and hoteliers making tough decisions to close their doors. Our industry is now in crisis management mode and all eyes remain focused on the development of COVID-19 and its disruption to hotel operations and the global travel economy.
Sustainability as a concept has been in a turmoil over the last 35 years. Since the World Commission on Environment and Development Report, commonly known as Brundland Report in 1987, sustainability has been advancing as a concept of developmental strategies in a number of destinations and organizations. With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aiming to showcase progress towards sustainability by 2030, a number of stakeholders have been working hard to make such goals achievable and a step towards their completion.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability have become increasingly important issues for a wide range of corporations. There is a growing awareness of the impact of business practices on the world environment, especially from the consumer side. Yet, companies are still resisting making social, economic and environmental sustainability a top priority.
Unarguably, the climate has noticeably changed in recent years. Weather patterns are more erratic and less predictable. Along the eastern side of North America, this currently means less snow. But for other places, like Australia, the perilousness of the situation may result in swift corrective legislation.
Mark Carney, the Bank of England's outgoing governor announced on Tuesday: "We have to work out how to bridge this period. We don't want viable firms to go out of business because of the necessary steps that have to be taken to protect the British public."
Every single second, more than 30 tourists arrive at their destination worldwide. With more than 1 billion passengers projected to travel in 2020, the effect tourism has on the environment cannot be underestimated. "Sustainability" has been one of the biggest buzz words of the past decade in the industry. Yet, the proliferation of its use is not necessarily a good thing. Like other terms that are often used in marketing to promote some products or services of virtually any company, (e.g. "eco-friendly" or "green"), the word itself has in many instances lost its true meaning.
What's the problem? Hotel bathroom toiletries are like 12 noon check in check out: an archaic practice that persists only because no one has thought to change it. When hotels first began to offer bathroom amenities, it was considered a 'luxury' item for use and something interesting to take home. This inertia is partially driven by hotel bathroom toiletry companies that are part of a billion-dollar business globally.
From Greta Thunberg sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to attending a conference in New York, to protesters all around the world taking to the streets in peaceful demonstrations - 2019 saw a huge uptick in activities related to climate change and environmental issues.
It started with the removal of plastic straws then the switch from single-use bathroom amenities to dispensers. Inch by inch, item by item, operation by operation, the sustainability screws will be tightened throughout your hotel over the coming decade as climate change and 'climate justice' takes centerstage at the UN, in regional governing bodies and within customers' minds.
As academics specializing in the travel and hospitality industry, we have trained and advised dozens of companies in their journey towards sustainable businesses. There is so much more sustainability than just the standard greenwashing statements. Travel, tourism and hospitality (TTH) firms are accountable and must take the changes taking place seriously, from Greta Thunberg´s movement to new priorities in the World Economic Forum´s agenda or the ever-growing list of world moguls taking on a leading role in the fight against climate change. For that reason, we have identified 10 sustainable tourism trends that will influence business strategies in 2020.
The task of communicating sustainability can be a challenging one. As part of the World Panel on Sustainable Hospitality on hospitalitynet, Willy Legrand, Professor at IUBH School of Business and Management and I invited various industry experts to share their opinions and received 31 insightful entries.
In our December HNN column, "Foresight is 20/20," we identified 2020's top travel and hotel industry trends. One major development we recognized was sustainability. Whether you believe in the Green New Deal or believe climate change is overstated, sustainability is on the minds of our guests and is economically practical to implement.
Welcome to the start of this new decade! Now that you've had your fill of turkey feasts and midnight champagne toasts, it's time for you to set some goals for the coming year but also to look ahead at what the 'Roaring 20s' will bring.
The tourism industry has one of the highest growth rates out of all industries in the world, accounting for 10.4% of global GDP and 319 million jobs (10% of total employment in 2018)1.. At the moment, there is no sign of a slump in this trend. In 2018, 1.4 billion international tourist arrivals were recorded (up 47% from the 2010s' 950.8 million) and the number is expected to rise to 1.8 billion in 2030. Hotels are only one of the many actors that play a big role in the industry as a whole2.
The hospitality industry is leaving behind a decade of growth, which brought along jobs and fostered local and regional development. The industry that repeatedly outperformed the global economy enters a new decade where leading climate researchers talk about the potential consequences of a "global cascade of tipping points" (Lenton et al. in Nature, Nov. 27, 2019). The World Economic Forum Global Risks Report published this past week argues that all critical long-term risks are environmental. The industry is at the forefront of those tipping points in terms of responsibility and impact.
With seven million guestrooms (as of this writing) available for rent, Airbnb beats out any other hotel company or distributor on the planet for total room inventory. Given its sheer size and its omnipresent brand awareness, when this sharing economy juggernaut makes the move, it's a sign of where the industry is headed as a whole.
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