Kerstin Seel

After our three incredible months in Australia and South East Asia it was time to say good bye and to go different ways. For me this meant three additional months of travelling in Thailand, Cambodia and New Zealand. But not only for pleasure –also for gaining important insights and information for my upcoming master dissertation.

I had already been thinking about possible dissertation topics during Phase II and discussed them with lecturers on site. I ended up choosing the subject of corporate social responsibility(CSR) and sustainability as a foundation for my thesis. Tourism is an exceptional industry that depends on nature and community as a product, but exploits them at the same time. It is essential to go beyond the legal requirements of a tourism firm, towards an integrated responsible development approach that is adapted to the context of the countries it operates in.

Another point for me was to think realistically and in a time where money makes the world go round, CSR involvement needs to be affordable and worthwhile for a company to survive. It was Shane Beary, founder of Track of the Tiger, who after a lecture in Chiang Mai Thailand told me that we have to work together against a false impression – the impression that acting responsibly involves more costs than returns. Therefore I decided to explore the relationship of company benefits and CSR and how companies currently measure and report their sustainable strategies.

Eventually, I decided to research two case studies of large tourism organisations that have extensive experience in the field of corporate social responsibility and that run projects in South East Asia. I talked to the project officers on site in Thailand and Cambodia and gained valuable information on how cooperation in CSR works, which benefits can be expected for company and beneficiary, and what improvements could be made in the future. I also established contact with the responsible CSR staff of the large tour operators that financed the projects, and had insightful interviews with both of them.

Additionally I ran a survey in order to gain relevant insights into consumer perceptions of CSR in tourism. One of the main outcomes was that there is a clear lack and transparency in terms of reporting. Information and communication of CSR is crucial as most benefits depend on the recognition of stakeholders and consumers – if these are not aware, the company might have difficulty to get return on their investment.

This information from research motivated me to use existing models from CSR theory to analyse the CSR behaviour and activities of both companies, and to propose ways of reporting the impact their projects have on the communities on spot.

I am grateful to have a tutor who supports and motivates me, and who tries his best to focus me on my topic so I do not let my mind wander too far. Furthermore I have been able to combine my experience and knowledge that I gathered throughout my time at NHTV in order to collect and analyse valuable data. So far it has been a rewarding process to learn about this subject, and to show that doing something good can actually lead to performing better.