Publicação
Assessing the sustainability of tourism supply chain: a case study
| Resumo: | Hospitality and Tourism (H&T) organisations are currently interested in implementing sustainable practices in order to accomplish sustainable development goals. From a social perspective, the tourism industry has been criticised for its poor working conditions, low wages, seasonality, and pricing pressures. Furthermore, temporary H&T workers lack the assurance of social benefits promised by national labour laws, such as social security, health coverage, and labour union participation. Besides, the pressures of various tourism stakeholders on tourism enterprises mandates organisations to raise their awareness of the social consequences of their operations. Nonetheless, social sustainability adoption in H&T is still in its early stages and difficult to assess, particularly when addressed through their Supply Chains (SCs). Egypt, a developing country on the Mediterranean coast, is a popular tourist destination and a desirable location for both local and multinational H&T companies. This strategic location has made Egypt's H&T sectors of the major source of income, directly contributing to nearly 1 million jobs in the Egyptian economy. However, beginning with the Arab Spring events in 2011, extending through the COVID-19 pandemic and the recently challenging economic situation in Egypt, the sector has encountered several socioeconomic problems resulting in negative consequences such as discharging employees, unpaid and mandatory leaves, late compensation, and benefit reductions, suspending promotions and new hiring. Despite the importance of the sector and the previously noted negative social consequences, there has been a remarkable lack of study to date that identifies and assesses social sustainability adoption in Egypt's H&T sectors from a SC perspective. In the first study of this dissertation, we review existing research on social sustainability in the H&T SC systematically to identify their research approaches and the emerging key research themes, geographical and sectoral scope, as well as the studied social sustainability practices in current research and identify current research gaps. Our review concluded that early studies used qualitative methods to examine social sustainability adoption in developed countries, whereas more recent studies used quantitative methods. However, there is a gap in using Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to assess social sustainability. We identified eight categories of social practices, with society and community development category receiving the most attention, followed by employee-related social practices, and human rights categories receiving the least attention in previous research. Then, in the second study, we start with the identification of the social sustainable practices, barriers, and enablers from the H&T literature. Afterwards, we draw on institutional and stakeholder theories to identify the adopted social sustainability practices in Egypt H&T SCs and the factors influencing their implementation. A mixed-method research approach is employed, which includes interviews with hotel managers and a literature-based questionnaire completed by 187 practitioners from Egypt’s H&T SC entities including hotels or resorts, tourism companies, travel agents, and hotel’s suppliers. The interviews revealed that social sustainability practices are implemented in the SCs of the two hotels, but they are limited to legal requirements and brand policies. Through statistical analysis, including Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), Tamhane’s T2 test, and Levene test, it was determined that local suppliers play a pivotal role in boosting the adoption of social practices. Alongside, the findings revealed a very weak association between the five investigated barriers and the adoption of social sustainability practices. Interviews conducted in the study clarified that this weak relationship does not signify the absence of barriers but rather points to a lack of awareness about social rights, especially in a culture that values social conservatism. Furthermore, significant variations in the majority of social sustainability practices (53 out of 62) were found to be explained by the 10 enablers. This underscores the importance of these enablers in influencing social sustainability practices within the studied context. The third study describes the development steps and application of a group MCDM framework for the assessment of social sustainability practices in the H&T SCs and applies it to the Egyptian H&T industry. To identify the current adoption of 53 social practices grouped into 8 social categories within the H&T sector, this study draws upon the previously reviewed pertinent literature on social sustainability and incorporates findings from a survey conducted in the antecedent research, involving 187 managers, supervisors, and employees affiliated with H&T SCs. To determine the importance of each practice, an expert-group survey comprising 22 experts representing different tiers in the H&T SC in Egypt was undertaken. The Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Distance to Ideal Solution based on TOPSIS method was used to rank and assess the current level of social practices adoption. According to the assessment, social sustainability practices are poorly implemented in the Egyptian H&T SC. In terms of social categories, society development was ranked the highest, while health and safety was ranked the lowest. Hotels were better than tour operators and tourism companies at incorporating social practices, while tourism suppliers were the lowest at implementing social sustainability practices. Although there were no significant differences in social sustainability adoption amongst SC partners, there were discrepancies within the same social categories and across various social categories. |
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| Autores principais: | Elbelehy, Chéhab Mahmoud Salaheldin Ali |
| Assunto: | Egypt Hospitality Social Sustainability Sustainability Assessment Sustainable Supply Chain Tourism Egito Hospitalidade Sustentabilidade Social Avaliação de Sustentabilidade Cadeia de Suprimentos Sustentável Turismo |
| Ano: | 2024 |
| País: | Portugal |
| Tipo de documento: | tese de doutoramento |
| Tipo de acesso: | acesso aberto |
| Instituição associada: | Universidade do Minho |
| Idioma: | inglês |
| Origem: | RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho |
| Resumo: | Hospitality and Tourism (H&T) organisations are currently interested in implementing sustainable practices in order to accomplish sustainable development goals. From a social perspective, the tourism industry has been criticised for its poor working conditions, low wages, seasonality, and pricing pressures. Furthermore, temporary H&T workers lack the assurance of social benefits promised by national labour laws, such as social security, health coverage, and labour union participation. Besides, the pressures of various tourism stakeholders on tourism enterprises mandates organisations to raise their awareness of the social consequences of their operations. Nonetheless, social sustainability adoption in H&T is still in its early stages and difficult to assess, particularly when addressed through their Supply Chains (SCs). Egypt, a developing country on the Mediterranean coast, is a popular tourist destination and a desirable location for both local and multinational H&T companies. This strategic location has made Egypt's H&T sectors of the major source of income, directly contributing to nearly 1 million jobs in the Egyptian economy. However, beginning with the Arab Spring events in 2011, extending through the COVID-19 pandemic and the recently challenging economic situation in Egypt, the sector has encountered several socioeconomic problems resulting in negative consequences such as discharging employees, unpaid and mandatory leaves, late compensation, and benefit reductions, suspending promotions and new hiring. Despite the importance of the sector and the previously noted negative social consequences, there has been a remarkable lack of study to date that identifies and assesses social sustainability adoption in Egypt's H&T sectors from a SC perspective. In the first study of this dissertation, we review existing research on social sustainability in the H&T SC systematically to identify their research approaches and the emerging key research themes, geographical and sectoral scope, as well as the studied social sustainability practices in current research and identify current research gaps. Our review concluded that early studies used qualitative methods to examine social sustainability adoption in developed countries, whereas more recent studies used quantitative methods. However, there is a gap in using Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to assess social sustainability. We identified eight categories of social practices, with society and community development category receiving the most attention, followed by employee-related social practices, and human rights categories receiving the least attention in previous research. Then, in the second study, we start with the identification of the social sustainable practices, barriers, and enablers from the H&T literature. Afterwards, we draw on institutional and stakeholder theories to identify the adopted social sustainability practices in Egypt H&T SCs and the factors influencing their implementation. A mixed-method research approach is employed, which includes interviews with hotel managers and a literature-based questionnaire completed by 187 practitioners from Egypt’s H&T SC entities including hotels or resorts, tourism companies, travel agents, and hotel’s suppliers. The interviews revealed that social sustainability practices are implemented in the SCs of the two hotels, but they are limited to legal requirements and brand policies. Through statistical analysis, including Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA), Tamhane’s T2 test, and Levene test, it was determined that local suppliers play a pivotal role in boosting the adoption of social practices. Alongside, the findings revealed a very weak association between the five investigated barriers and the adoption of social sustainability practices. Interviews conducted in the study clarified that this weak relationship does not signify the absence of barriers but rather points to a lack of awareness about social rights, especially in a culture that values social conservatism. Furthermore, significant variations in the majority of social sustainability practices (53 out of 62) were found to be explained by the 10 enablers. This underscores the importance of these enablers in influencing social sustainability practices within the studied context. The third study describes the development steps and application of a group MCDM framework for the assessment of social sustainability practices in the H&T SCs and applies it to the Egyptian H&T industry. To identify the current adoption of 53 social practices grouped into 8 social categories within the H&T sector, this study draws upon the previously reviewed pertinent literature on social sustainability and incorporates findings from a survey conducted in the antecedent research, involving 187 managers, supervisors, and employees affiliated with H&T SCs. To determine the importance of each practice, an expert-group survey comprising 22 experts representing different tiers in the H&T SC in Egypt was undertaken. The Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Distance to Ideal Solution based on TOPSIS method was used to rank and assess the current level of social practices adoption. According to the assessment, social sustainability practices are poorly implemented in the Egyptian H&T SC. In terms of social categories, society development was ranked the highest, while health and safety was ranked the lowest. Hotels were better than tour operators and tourism companies at incorporating social practices, while tourism suppliers were the lowest at implementing social sustainability practices. Although there were no significant differences in social sustainability adoption amongst SC partners, there were discrepancies within the same social categories and across various social categories. |
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