Sustainability in the tour operator – ground agent supply chain

Abstract

This research aims to identify, and critically understand, the key opportunities for and barriers against tour operators and their ground handlers sourcing and selling more sustainable tourism products. The study is framed in the literature of organisational culture and buyer–seller collaborations both downstream (sustainable supply chain management) and upstream (business-to-business marketing). Semi-structured interviews help to identify the tour operators’ barriers, opportunities and key decision-making criteria. The findings suggest that a supportive organisational culture is a prerequisite to success for companies that wish to scale up the volume of sustainable products they source and sell. Sustainability only sells when it contributes to an organisation’s ability to meet its requirement of quality of service, especially in relation to suitability of the products to its target markets and reinforcing professional and trustworthy relationships. For services that are keenly priced, and/or that have tight health and safety regulations, buyers and sellers often lack the motivation to consider sustainability requirements unless they are clearly valued and marketed. Business-to-business marketing requires suppliers to understand the relative importance of sustainability to each of their buyers and, in response, to develop appropriate arguments to explain the importance of sustainability within their buyers’ organisational needs.

Keywords:

• Supply chain
• supplier collaboration
• procurement
• business-to-business marketing
• sustainability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

P. Richards

Peter Richards is a consultant and field expert in developing and marketing responsible tourism experiences. His work focuses on facilitating win-win business relationships between tourism operators with a commitment to responsible tourism, and local suppliers including communities and SMEs. Peter has a geographical specialisation in South-East Asia, where he has lived and worked for almost 20 years. Peter has consulted for the EU, FAO, ITC, Futouris Foundation, The Travel Foundation, UNESCO, UNWTO, WWF and numerous businesses. He is also interested in catalysing exchange between tourism academics and practitioners.

X. Font

Dr Xavier Font is Professor of Sustainability Marketing at the University of Surrey, and Head of Impact at Travindy (www.travindy.com), a web-based organisation helping the travel industry to understand the issues around tourism and sustainability. Xavier has run over 130 training courses on sustainability marketing with over 2500 delegates and has consulted for UNWTO, UNEP, EC, IFC, Rainforest Alliance and numerous governments and businesses. His research focuses on understanding reasons for pro-sustainability behaviour and market-based mechanisms to encourage sustainable production and consumption.