Thesis Statement
The report focuses on the need for the effective implementation of sustainable developmental plan across luxury hotels. Moreover, the focus is towards forming an effective sustainable developmental plan for a luxury hotel in Australia in order to elaborate on the subject of sustainable environmental development. The selected luxury hotel resort is Silky Oaks Lodge and Healing Spa located in Queensland, Australia. It has been seen that concerning the existing corporate environments for Hotels and Resorts across the globe, there is a shift towards environmental sustenance. The focus is towards increasing the environmental efficiency and subsequently enhances the aspects of social engagement. This is a positive trend that can lead to the long term success of hotels and resorts across the world. The sustainable development plan however is not limited only to environmental aspects or social engagement. It significantly encompasses the essential economic and organizational strategies that are key to the long term stability and prosperity of the various organizations as well as the hotel industry. As a substantial portion of profitability for the luxury hotels are dependent on the environmental aspects surrounding its business it becomes more important that sustainable environmental development is more actively integrated within the organizational development strategy. The study is significantly focused on three aspects of environmental, economic and community engagement concerning the essential operations of the hotel industry. The aspects are integrated to form strategies that can ensure the long term sustenance of the functional elements of the luxury hotel organization without compromising on profitability.
The thesis statement being considered for the study is that it is possible to form effective strategies through which effective sustenance of environmental, economic and community engagement is possible along with increasing the profitability without compromising on luxury or customer satisfaction.
The report has considered the extensive analysis and evaluation of the various aspects related to the organizational environment considering luxury hotels in Australia. Hotels and Resorts across the country and at a global level are located across places of scenic beauty. Hence the operational productivity of hotels is directly connected to the values related to environmental sustenance. However, as the economic and community oriented aspects of organizations are also being given equal importance it has increased the scope for the future use of the report. The report can provide valuable informational frameworks for future researches to take place regarding the subject. The sustainability report can help the focus organization to grow and develop further in the luxury hotel industry. Moreover, the report can help in understanding the various factors that can affect the long term sustainability functions of various hotel enterprises. The study will also help to understand the present and future prospects for environmental sustenance in the luxury hotel industry. Additionally the need for environmental sustenance will be analyzed in order to provide essential reasons to implement sustainability plans in the future. The scope of the study further increases as it can provide a systematic path for the all-round development of organizations operating in the hotel sector. The greater need for environmental sustenance for ensuring better futures for the populations can be promoted through the study.
Scope of Report
The company in focus for the study is Silky Oaks Lodge and Healing Spa. It is very famous luxury resort located at the banks of the river Mossman in the far north area of Queensland. The resort is unique because of its location. The resort is located within a rainforest. The forest is adjacent to the Daintree Rainforest and National Park (Silky Oaks Lodge, 2018). The location makes it’s a very ecologically sound place. The luxury resort offers accommodation in tree houses. The accommodation rooms are designed to have large spaces of balconies. Moreover, the hotel is also famous for the spa facilities that it offers to customers (Mowforth & Munt, 2015). The spa facilities include double spa baths located within beautiful gardens and the rainforest. The hotel also offers rooms with exquisite views of the Mossman River. The main attraction of the hotel is the location. The hotel can be said to be unique in the area with regards to the facilities being offered to the customers. The culinary offerings exhibit the local produce of the Area. The hotel offers great views and focuses towards providing gusts as much view of the surrounding rainforest and the Mossman River as possible (Silky Oaks Lodge, 2018). The resort offers many rooms where glass walls have been installed to provide a complete view of the surrounding area of the forest. Additionally, as mentioned previously the hotel also provides world class spa facilities. The spa facilities are inspired by the ancient traditions of the local area. The company essentially focuses towards providing experiences that helps guest to identify more with the natural beauty of the place(Chiu, Radzuwan & Ting, 2014). Additionally, the resort offers an adventurous proposition of living in the middle of the forest.
The resort is located at the far north area of the Queensland state of Australia. It is also referred to as the tropical north of the country. The nearest city is the City of Cairns. The region is also very close to the Torres Strait. The local community is different from many of the rest of the areas of Australia. It is home to both the aboriginal Australians and the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders (Butler, 2014). Hence, most of the local communities are traditionally rooted in the Australian Aboriginal and indigenous culture. The industry is greatly dependent on tourism but other important industries of the area include cattle farming, mining and agriculture. The local community is very much dependent and close to the forest land. The local traditions are well maintained and there is multicultural intermixing between the Aboriginals, the Torres Strait Islanders and the rest of the Australians. 26% of the indigenous inhabitants of the state of Queensland reside in the area. Hence, the local communities are traditional and culturally inclined towards the aboriginal traditions. Moreover, the inhabitants make up more than 11.5% of the populations of the region. It is important that the local community is included within the sustainability plan. This will ensure the better management of the natural resources of the area (Tiliute & Condratov, 2014). The local communities are helpful and are integrated into the tourism sector of the area.
Background of hotel and local community
In any sustainability plan the social element becomes much important. The social implications of sustainability cannot be undermined in any case. The triple bottom line framework provides an effective path for the development of social sustainability functions. The concepts effectively include social aspects such as unemployment, participation of the female labor force, house income, poverty, educational aspects and crime rates (Tiliute & Condratov, 2014). As the social sustainability plan is being considered it becomes much important to include the local communities into the strategies that can be implemented by the enterprise in order to strengthen its drive towards complete sustainability. The various social areas can be focused that needs to be effectively developed. The focus for the Silky Oaks Resort should be towards essentially strengthening the relationship between the organization and the local communities. The traditional values of the local aboriginal and Torres Strait islander communities can be essentially incorporated into the business model of the resorts. The main focus should be towards employing more local in the various essential roles of the company.
The first step towards social sustainability is definitely the employment of the local population in the various roles of the organization. The important things to consider using the triple bottom line framework are rate of unemployment, female labor force, household income in the far north area and educational values of the indigenous populations. The area is close to the forest hence it can be considered that the indigenous populations would have wide knowledge about the various available resources in the area. The area falls under the various community development plans that are implemented by the administrative agencies of Queensland and the Australian government. The Silky Oaks resort can essentially associate themselves with these kinds of developmental plans for the local communities of the area (Thomas & Brodie, 2015). There has been an improvement in the educational standards of the local communities due to the special attention provided towards their effective development by the state and national government agencies. Thus, it would also be highly profitable for the company to include the local residents within the operational departments of the Silky Oaks Resort. This can help the resort benefit as this will ensure the long term committed relationship between the locals and the communities. The median household incomes of some of the communities are not much. Hence, the resort can make effective programs to include these households to ensure their development. The people from these households can be provided effective training with regards to management of hotels. The training facilities should not only be done in a way to increase the work efficiency of the locals, however, it should be done in a way to secure the future of the people identified within the vulnerable income groups. The resort should focus more on CSR after the inclusion of the local communities within the organization is complete. This will further strengthen the relationship between the organization and the local community.
The Silky Oaks already have an effective organizational framework that is deeply rooted to the traditional aspects of the area. This can be further strengthened through the further integration of the local communities. The resort already employs locals in the various spa facilities that they offer to the customers. However, the integration of the local communities in the other important functions of the enterprises have to be done. One of the most important gains for the company through the renewed community integration process will be the creation of more traditional atmosphere (Walsh& Dodds, 2017). The resort can increase its profitability through its essential promotion of the local customs and traditions along with the effective location of the resort within a forest area. The integration of the female population of the place can be done through the employment of local women in both the operations and the spa management teams of the resort. As mentioned earlier, the spa facilities provided by the company already use traditional methods to improve the spa experiences of the customers. The integration of the local knowledge can enhance the productivity of the spa department of the company even further.
Sustainable Concepts
The locality is very important in the context of the resort. The local community is different from many of the rest of the areas of Australia. It is home to both the aboriginal Australians and the indigenous Torres Strait Islanders. Hence, most of the local communities are traditionally rooted in the Australian Aboriginal and indigenous culture. The industry is greatly dependent on tourism but other important industries of the area include cattle farming, mining and agriculture. The local community is very much dependent and close to the forest land. The local traditions are well maintained and there is multicultural intermixing between the Aboriginals, the Torres Strait Islanders and the rest of the Australians. This means that there is a social need for integrating all the communities towards the benefit of the local society. Since the resort is located at a place that consists of people from the local aboriginal tribes it is important to put more emphasis towards upholding the ancient traditions of Australia that have almost disappeared over time. It is also important to portray the social synthesis of the society of Australia. The resort should take part in community festivals. The local community festivals of the Torres Strait islanders and the aboriginals should be promoted by the resort. The profitability can be kept intact as the festivals can be used as special attractions from time to time (Zervas, Proserpio& Byers, 2017). Given the special location of the islands and the unique business proposition these kinds of festivals can generate a significant fan following among the visitors. The focus should be towards completely integrating the resort with the local community, society and traditions. The locals should get a feeling that the resort is very much an integral part of the area and this should also be the exact feelings that the resort should induce among the customers.
Being a multidisciplinary subject, environmental sustainability has attracted the attention of researchers from various fields of expertise. In the following perspective the management of the environment in an Australian hotel industry stands out for two different aspects. The first aspect is the economic importance of the hotels which is the key element or one of the major factors of the tourism sector and secondly the environmental impact generated through the management of the hotels must be managed. Therefore it is important to examine how the following subject has been addressed by the hotel that has been set up in a picturesque location of Australia.
The hotel industry is very much important to the economy of the world as it contributes to the economic and social development. But the development of these activities processes and services leads to the generation of a number of environmental impacts that may cause global warming and leads to the depletion of different kinds of natural resources. It is very important for a hotel to have the awareness and knowledge about the environment so that any activities from their path do not harm the balance in the nature. The awareness and social pressure let the hotels to begin managing the environmental impacts of their activities and turn accountable to society for the management.
Social Sustainability
Different authors researching on the subject have warned that the interest of the society in sustainability becomes social factor for the selection of the tourism enterprise that represents the guarantee of a comfort and Hospitality. Environmental sustainability is a growing concern demands companies to run their businesses in effective fashion. Additionally it is an influence on the behavior of the customers. People now are more environmentally aware and always demand products and services that are environmental friendly. Thus, the lodge should remember the environmental implication of their operations and also increase competitive advantage in implementing the operational systems. This will help in the maintenance of long term commercial success for the organization.
Hotels become part of the environments within which they operate. Environmental sustainability for hotels have mostly been recorded to increase profitability due to increased trust of the customers. The person value is always followed by competition of destination. This becomes a powerful tool for predicting the intentions of the organization towards the future. The intentions of the enterprise for future growth will be highly dependent on the attitude of the organization towards the environment encompassing the Mossman River and the surrounding forest area. Conservation of the forest area is bound to provide positive results for the organization. This is because the Silky Oaks Lodge is intrinsically connected with the local flora and fauna of the given area. The management of silky Oaks lodge has decided to manage the destination appropriately so that the resources are always happening to the tourist and are maintained over time. The Lodge can greatly benefit from the functional optimization of the lodge’s essential operations with the environmental aspects of the surrounding areas. However, on the contrary deterioration of the environment could bring massive losses for the organization.
The management of the hotel has also adopted and implemented as policy for enhancing tourism based on environmental sustenance to both preserve the destination value and increase market competitiveness of the hotel. The environmental concern that the hotel shares have helped them to theoretically achieve a competitive advantage over its rivals in the Australian hotel industry. The management has studied the earlier research is on environmental concerns and has found out that where is an essential support towards the eco-friendly influences or behavioral intentions. Particular influences have been separated by many empirical evidence. This has pointed towards the great value of the environmentally effective policies. The management of the hotel has enhanced the destination quality and increased the value of the products.
This includes the different facilities offered to the customers by them. The enhancement in the value of the product has led to the increase in the number of tourists as well as increase in revenue. The management of the hotel has used the theory of planned behavior to reasonably act as a hotel that concerns for the environment. The Hotel has implemented number of Green practices in their operations starting from recycling to purchasing local production and implementing rigorous leadership in energy and environmental design certification standards. The hotel has been environmentally conscious since they begin recycling the trash from the 2nd year onwards.
Economic Sustainability
The management has introduced the special program that is followed throughout the hotel and includes the use of green cleaning products the presence of a water engineer and weekly meetings with different environmental representatives to manage the hotel in a proper and efficient manner. Apart from this hotel is also dedicated an entire interactive website to the evolving green efforts my focusing on waste, water, energy and community. This website provides a common platform for the environmental enthusiasts to present their view and suggest different types of recommendations for the hotel to improve their environmental care. The hotel has also been saving money he and increasing the Occupancy rates largely due to the Australian law that gives preference to the environmental concern hotels for different types of meetings and conferences.
This specific program Ram has been present it for the last 5 years and provides certified lodging facilities which follow all the environmental guidelines like communication waste reduction recycling water conservation Energy Efficiency and green transportation. Apart from this the hotel has also set a deadline to completely we move away from spreading carbon footprints and converting totally into a green facility. The hotel has started the green effort and has included a program that she is encouragement of guests to buy green products from the hotel itself at a price of Dollar 1 per day. The program also makes a commitment to reduce the annual water and energy consumption by buy 20% per available room within the year 2020. Benchmarking and auditing is the second most important task that is completed by the management to ensure transparent business. Benchmarking provides means to the company to evaluate facility performance against different kinds of similar facilities that helps to ascertain the potential for operational performance improvements. Benchmarking can also be utilized to support the basic facility management decisions like investing in a facility audit for building commissioning investigation.
The management has also started discussion on introduction of Eco rooms in which the materials will be recyclable and there would be facilities that will enable energy and water conservation. The initial reasons for the hotel to convert into a green facility were based more on governmental pressures and the desire to preserve resources by conserving West energy and water. Different studies have shown that green attributes contribute to the overall success of the hotel and leads to customer satisfaction attributes can be expected as part of the service offer and therefore must be provided the marks needed importance to ensure guest satisfaction and profitability in the business. Customers often provide a class attribute to the hotels that offer clean and renewable energy sources. This particular phenomenon has forced the management of silky Oaks lodge to convert the hotel in to an environmental Getaway. Therefore environmental sustainability is one of the main factors that is seen to be well addressed by the organization.
In the modern the economic climate there are multiple factors that encourage the business owners and the managers to adopt different kinds of sustainability measures into standard operational procedures. The different kinds of drivers that manage the sustainability options about in while the more obvious drivers include environmental concerns and demonstration of corporate social responsibility one of the most important factors is the financial driver. The financial driver is one of the most important among all in the hospitality sector. Based on the growing number of factors coinciding series of needs will have to be addressed to provide Hoteliers with the resources to implement different kinds of environmental and social initiatives at their facility only by means of a strong financial backup.
Community Engagement
The management of the hotel has insured the presence of a proper financing option to face all the different challenges that may provide a hurdle to increase their sustainability in the future. For the Asset managers and property level decision makers of the company the lack of Financing is often cited as one of the main reason for them to unable to take advantage of different kinds of Energy Efficiency opportunities. The management of the hotel is more interested to take on different kinds of social and environmental projects when third party funds easily available to them. The use of alternative financing mechanisms like energy-saving agreements here’s the company to encourage Critical Mass of environmental improvement projects at the global level.
Benchmarking and auditing is the second most important task that is completed by the management to ensure transparent business. Benchmarking provides means to the company to evaluate facility performance against different kinds of similar facilities that helps to ascertain the potential for operational performance improvements. Benchmarking can also be utilized to support the basic facility management decisions like investing in a facility audit for building commissioning investigation. The detailed investment grade audits can provide a fundamental tool that has different owners and operators in understanding the technical and financial implications of environmental retrofits and employee training initiatives.
The auditing does helps the Lodge to stay financially sound and ensure the presence of a proper and effective financial condition along with the absence of bankruptcy. Though the decision making of the management is quite significant, variable information regarding the financial aspects of environmental investments he is very much difficult to find. Therefore the management to enable proper decision making requires simple life cycle based analysis of the different types of Investments. This is generally done by a proper capital outlay and decision making criteria.
The triple bottom approach has been used as it provides an effective framework through which all the areas of sustainability can be greatly focused. The triple bottom line framework essentially incorporates the most important concepts of sustainability such as social, environmental and financial sustainability (Moghimi, 2016). Sustainability plans are frameworks through which organizations can realize their long term goals. This is important because organizations cannot rely entirely on the short term profit making strategies. Without long term growth organizations will not be able to function properly. The Triple Bottom Line framework has been used as it provides various performance dimensions that are not otherwise provided by any other frameworks through which sustainable developmental aspects of organizations can be measured.The dimensions that are commonly provided by the triple bottom line frameworks are also referred to as the three Ps (Epstein, 2018). These are namely people, planet and profits. The study depends on all of the three in order to provide a significant detail of the sustainability plan that can be proposed for the growth and development of the community towards the future. The framework helps to essentially identify the activities of an organization and its significance towards the world as a whole (Zeppel & Beaumont, 2014). The measurement of the capital and investment functions are directly compared with the sociological and ecological concepts connected with sustainable growth.
Conclusion
The usage of the TBL format has been very effective in determining and subsequently evaluating the various aspects related to the significant sustainable growth of the organization. Hence, firstly the framework provided the 3 most important aspects of sustainable growth for the company that can be focused on while devising a sustainability plan (Hammer & Pivo, 2017). The aspects were social, economic and environmental. Secondly, the measures of the various factors within these aspects were also understood through the framework. This could be put into the context of the resort and subsequently, the essential strategic aspects could be found through the evaluation of the identified sub-factors within the divisions of the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainable development. Thirdly, the measures of the factors were given and the exact impact of each of the factors towards the larger factors could be found. The triple bottom line framework was very important towards the effective analysis, evaluation and presentation of the findings.
Through the triple bottom line framework it was essentially found that the local tradition of the place where the resort is located is important for the social sustainability of the resort. Subsequently, it was found that the preservation of the natural resources could ensure the long term attraction and revenue effectiveness of the enterprise (Hammer & Pivo, 2017). Lastly, it was found that the financial aspects are dependent on lowering the investments and sustainably using the natural resources. Hence, the framework has provided and effective way through which the variables of the study can be effectively managed. Without the framework the presentation or analysis of the information gathered would not have been possible (Bruns-Smith et al., 2015). The framework was effective in also providing a significant structure for the greater understanding of the implications of sustainability for both the company and the industry.
Conclusion
The study has pointed out the major implications of sustainable management of the social, economic and environmental aspects that are connected with the resort. Sustainable development becomes much important for the enterprises that work for the accommodation industry. This is because most of the resorts or hotels are located in and around popular tourist destinations. The destinations are mostly places of remarkable natural beauty. However, tourism industry has also faced hazards such as tourists and hotel enterprises being involved in polluting the environment of a given tourist destination. In case of Queensland, these types of issues can definitely affect the Great Barrier Reef. It becomes much important thus, that the hotel organizations pay more attention towards saving the environment of their respective locations. This way they can ensure profitability and long term attraction towards the tourists.
It was found that the Silky Oaks resort pays much attention towards enhancing the environment of the locality. The efforts of the resort towards maintaining eco-logical balance and ensuring greater amounts of exposure of the guests to nature and natural resources is commendable as this also increases the awareness of the people towards nature. The environmental sustenance concept is therefore very effectively being enhanced by the work of the resort. The resort is providing the guests with an authentic environmental exposure. The natural spa facilities are making people develop closer relationships with nature and natural elements. The greater integration of the local community and the effective management of resources can provide an essential sustainability plan for the business of the resort. The financial aspects can be enhanced through the introduction of lesser expensive packages. Hence, more people can visit the place and witness the scenic beauty that the place has to offer. Hence, the study has been able to portray effectively, the trend of new hotels and the ways in which newer hotel enterprises are contributing towards developing a more eco-friendly accommodation industry. It has to be remembered that the industry is in great need for newer ways to reach the target audiences.
References
The sustainability plan formed for the select resort can be used to increase the future productivity and profitability of the resort. At the same time the sustainability plan addresses the most important questions concerning the future of the ecological surroundings of the resort. Similar plans can be made and implemented across the entire resort and hotel oriented industry in order to enhance the prospects of the industry. Synchronizing profitability with environmental sustainability is the road forward for the hospitality industry. This can also provide successful sustainability frameworks for organizations across the global corporate sectors. The future of corporate enterprises across the world depends on their sustainability strategies.
References
Bruns-Smith, A., Choy, V., Chong Ph D, H., & Verma Ph D, R. (2015). Environmental sustainability in the hospitality industry: Best practices, guest participation, and customer satisfaction.
Butler, R. (2014). Coastal tourist resorts: history, development and models.
Chiu, L. K., Radzuwan, R. B., & Ting, C. S. (2014). Assessing sport and recreation programmes’ service quality at hotels and resorts: Towards enhancing customer participation. Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management, 2(1), 6-17.
Epstein, M. J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. Routledge.
Fukey, L. N., & Issac, S. S. (2014). Connect among green, sustainability and hotel industry: a prospective simulation study. Energy conservation, 6, 8.
Gabarda-Mallorquí, A., Garcia, X., & Ribas, A. (2017). Mass tourism and water efficiency in the hotel industry: A case study. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 61, 82-93.
Hammer, J., & Pivo, G. (2017). The triple bottom line and sustainable economic development theory and practice. Economic Development Quarterly, 31(1), 25-36.
Hecht, H., Mayier, M., & Perakslis, C. (2014, March). Pervasive connectivity: The thriving hotel of the future. In Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PERCOM Workshops), 2014 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 357-363). IEEE.
Jones, P., Hillier, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 36-67.
Moghimi, S. (2016). Creativity and innovation in hotels and resorts: the role of leadership.
Mowforth, M., & Munt, I. (2015). Tourism and sustainability: Development, globalisation and new tourism in the third world. Routledge.
Nieves, J., Quintana, A., & Osorio, J. (2014). Knowledge-based resources and innovation in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 38, 65-73.
Silky Oaks Lodge – home. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.silkyoakslodge.com.au/
Thomas, C., & Brodie, J. (2015). Environmental-economic values of marine and coastal natural assets, North Queensland Dry Tropics NRM Region. A report to the North Queensland Dry Tropics NRM. TropWATER Report, 15, 68.
Tiliute, D. E., & Condratov, I. (2014). Improving the Quality of Services in All-inclusive Resorts by Monitoring Tourists Activities. Procedia Economics and Finance, 16, 166-172.
Tiliute, D. E., & Condratov, I. (2014). Informatic System For Tracking Guests Access To The Hotel Services And Resource Planning In “All Inclusive” Tourism Resorts. Revista de turism-studii si cercetari in turism, (17), 37-41.
Walsh, P. R., & Dodds, R. (2017). Measuring the choice of environmental sustainability strategies in creating a competitive advantage. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(5), 672-687.
Zeppel, H., & Beaumont, N. (2014). Climate change and sustainable tourism: Carbon mitigation by environmentally certified tourism enterprises. Tourism Review International, 17(3), 161-177.
Zervas, G., Proserpio, D., & Byers, J. W. (2017). The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(5), 687-705.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
