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This paper aims to determine a uniquely Canadian training path for tourism companies to follow to embed sustainable tourism practices in their companies.

The foundation of this paper was laid by conducting in-depth executive interviews with leading tourism companies in Canada. Based on the interviews, an eight-question survey was developed and sent to 22 Canadian tourism companies with a response rate of 36 per cent. The results of best practice research conducted in the UK and Ireland were considered in relation to implementation in Canada.

This paper suggests a Canadian process and key concepts to consider for embedding sustainability in tourism companies.

This paper provides a practical training process, geared for Canadian tourism companies, that embeds sustainability in all divisions of the company. A step-by-step process is described that all tourism companies, no matter their size, can use to embed sustainability.

This paper draws upon the author’s experience in working with Canadian tourism companies and incorporates best practices shared in a partnership with The Travel Foundation. As the paper represents both original research and industry best practice, it is of interest to academics, tourism training centres and tourism companies in Canada. Learning an effective and efficient process developed specifically for Canadian tourism companies will allow companies to economically embed sustainability and ultimately create a unique market position for the company.

The importance of diversification and innovation in strengthening of global competitiveness has been emphasized in both tourism and local development literature. The aim of this chapter is to define the factors (company type, company size, intra-industry investments, collaboration with other companies, and associations) that influence the product- and service-diversification of hotels. This chapter addresses the diversification and innovation strategies of hotels, not only in the light of tourism literature, but also of local development literature, and it provides empirical evidence based on a company-level survey. The findings of the study show that company type, company size, sector-specific knowledge (intra-industry investments and experience of hotel workers), and collaboration with other companies and institutions matter for product- and service-diversification of hotels.

This chapter argues that substantial potential exists for service encounter-based innovation in tourism. However, there are also a number of obstacles. Based on theoretical discussions on potentials and obstacles, a Knowledge Chain Model of service encounter-based innovation in tourism is developed. It suggests how weak or broken knowledge chains limit companies’ potential for benefiting from service encounter-based innovation. The relevance of the model is illustrated by a comparative case study of four tourism companies. In light of the theoretical frameworks and empirical findings, the chapter suggests how experimental methods can join research and practice to enhance the innovative potential of tourism companies while providing the research community with valuable knowledge.

Two major obstacles to tourism development in India have been identified as shortage of skilled manpower and dearth of rural tourism projects. Through the provisions under Section 135 of the new Companies Act 2013, the Indian government has initiated a reform process on how private companies, including leading hospitality businesses, should conduct their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. Recognizing this opportunity for action, this paper looks at the opportunity for tourism growth under the new CSR regime by reviewing the barriers for hospitality companies falling under the ambit of Section 135 to make CSR investments toward tourism development. Upon establishing these barriers, the argument reviews the current CSR trends and the absence of diversification in spending CSR funds. Finally, the paper discusses the need for enhancing the capacity of tourism NGOs in India and for developing strategic partnerships between these institutions and hospitality companies.

In the mission letter dated October 10th, 2001, the French Secretary of State for Tourism asked the Inspectorate General of Tourism to conduct an evaluation on the impact of recent international events on the tourism industry, and to assess the risks incurred by companies affected by the decline in international tourism. The first task of this mission was to identify the sites, locations and activities most affected by a significant drop in attendance. It was then to evaluate the repercussions of this situation on the companies affected. Lastly, it was to evaluate the difficulties encountered by these companies to continue to do business. In conjunction with the statistics division of the Tourism Department and the heads of the National Tourism Observatory (ONT) (both entities were involved in evaluating compensation following the Erika shipwreck), the Inspectorate General of Tourism identified the statistical sources and economic data available as of today that could be used to measure the immediate repercussions of the events in question, and to assess the relevance of the data. The content of this report is based on the information supplied by the professionals, and was cross‐checked with the information obtained from surveys and observations conducted by the Tourism Department and the ONT. This content enhances the information already contained in the intermediate document dated November 14th, 2001.

The purpose of this study is to introduce the concept of social tourism and to find existing social tourism practices in South Korea. Social tourism is generally supported by governments to provide tourism opportunities to those who are otherwise not able to trip. Social tourism helps both people who use the programs and the tourism industry. In South Korea, unlike many other countries, the practice of social tourism is based on businesses’ corporate social responsibility. Businesses offer various cultural and recreational opportunities to various groups of people in the community. This study outlines the context of various approaches to social tourism in South Korea and highlights some challenges and proposed initiatives for the future integration of the social tourism sector.

The Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected the tourism industry. The highly contagious coronavirus-19 has brought the whole industry to its knees, initiating catastrophic effects in terms of loss of jobs and revenue. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify the innovative coping strategies adopted by small tourism companies (STCs) to revive business and cope with the pandemic.

This study used qualitative exploration and asked open-ended questions to senior executives of STCs in India. Written responses were obtained from the respondents. Thematic analysis was performed to analyse the responses of the participants.

The findings highlight the innovative strategies adopted by STCs to cope with Covid-19-related business loss and present suggestions given by them to benefit the tourism industry.

This study offers insightful practical and theoretical implications for tourism companies, marketing practitioners and policymakers.

The study builds on social practice theory, and the findings (prominent themes) are uniquely mapped with the elements of social practice theory.

While the tourism industry generally rejects ISO 9000 as a standard irrelevant for this sector, the article aims to assess potential impacts of ISO 9000 accreditation upon the performance of small tourism enterprises (STEs). Limited research within this area encouraged the use of primary research techniques for collecting the relevant data. Due to an insufficient number of STEs fulfilling the sampling criteria, a case study approach was adopted with Westons Cider constituting its subject. The research revealed that ISO 9000 significantly contributed to the improved performance of this company. The benefits and advantages of the ISO 9000 system depend, however, on the age of the system and are subject to a company’s conformance to critical success factors. The study also uncovered that the usefulness of ISO 9000 needs to be assessed against the particular situation of an individual company rather than against the sector to which a company belongs.

The authors investigate how executive pay and its gap with employee pay influence the performance of Thailand tourism listed companies.

The authors manually collect data on the executives' and employees' remunerations for Thailand tourism listed companies and use the data for the authors’ OLS regression analysis. To check the robustness of the results to potential endogeneity issues, the authors employ the two-stage least-squares regression analysis and the impact threshold for a confounding variable approach.

The authors find that short-term executive compensation enhances firm performance, and that long-term executive compensation reduces the likelihood of unfavorable corporate performance. The authors also find that the gap in short-term pay between executives and employees has an inverted-U relation with firm performance.

This study suggests that higher executive pay relative to employee pay could encourage executives to work hard to improve corporate performance, but that too large a pay gap between executives and employees could impair employees' morale and harm firm performance.

It is important for tourism companies to not only pay executives well but also avoid too large a pay gap between executives and employees.

This study implies the important role of compensation design in contributing to employee engagement and good performance for tourism firms.

This study sheds light on agency problems between executives and employees in tourism companies and provides new evidence and insights on compensation research in the tourism sector in emerging markets.

This study aims to examine how tourism impacts on local community, managers’ attachment to the community and their identification with the value of heritage resources influence managers’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) attitudes, utilizing the value identification and agency theories.

The proposed hypotheses were tested utilizing cross-sectional data collected from 228 managers of a plethora of travel and tourism companies that operate at a UNESCO World Heritage site in China. A structured questionnaire was administered in person in managers’ offices by a team of trained research assistants. A total of 202 valid surveys were included in the data analysis. A two-step structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was used to first examine the psychometric properties of the measurement model, and then test the causal relationships proposed in the structural model.

The findings indicate that managers’ place attachment, their heritage value identification and their perceptions of positive tourism impacts affect their CSR attitudes. However, the negative effects of tourism do not significantly influence CSR attitudes. Data collected through open-ended questions incorporated in the structured survey have provided justification for the insignificant relationship.

CSR perceptions of managers, especially those at heritage sites, have not received much attention from tourism scholars. Because travel and tourism companies at heritage sites are integral in the preservation and conservation of heritage sites while managers of those companies are the ones who initiate and implement socially responsible policies and practices, it is important to understand the factors that may influence those managers’ CSR attitudes and behaviors.