Measuring hotels’ social sustainabilitycurrent state and proposal

Abstract

The definition of sustainability, both in general and for the tourism sector, faces the challenge of developing indicators to perform a correct measuring and follow-up. Despite the progress on the development of indicators to measure sustainability, the task remains incomplete especially at local scale and for the social pillar. The main aim of this work is to generate a set of relevant indicators for the social sustainability of the accommodation sector. The geographical context of this study is an important tourist destination in Spain, the Canary Islands, with the base of the study being the analysis of one of the hotels in the destination. We use the methodology of Social Value Analysis Model of Social Accounting to determine the social value of an organization. This model is based in the stakeholders´ theory and adopts a phenomenological perspective, going further than the quantitative conception of this value that is related with Corporate Social Responsibility, which focuses more on the organization’s vision about the activities it does to contribute to society. The social sustainability indicators that are obtained widen both the social and environmental standard of the Global Reporting Initiative and the criteria of the socioeconomic and environmental sector of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council for Hotels. This method can contribute to the construction of an indicator system related to social aspects for the accommodation sector.