Women Members on Boards of Directors: Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the Tourism Sector

Introduction

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and sustainability are increasingly important concepts in the tourism sector. As tourism often has significant environmental, social, and economic impacts on destinations, it is crucial for companies in the industry to adopt responsible and sustainable practices (Mayer & Voght, 2016).¹

The tourism sector, which has a significant share in the field of service, is perhaps the type of service most affected by the trends of consumer (Yachin, 2018). In addition, international relations, macro and microeconomics parameters, and sociocultural parameters affect the tourism sector (Mihalic, 2016). Businesses that want to succeed in the tourism sector need to follow trends and changes in all areas of daily life (Camilleri, 2020). From the point of view of strategic management, enterprises operating in the tourism sector should use all their resources, especially human resources, effectively and efficiently within the framework of a resource-based strategy approach (Garay and Font, 2012). In addition, having different resources to be least affected by close and general environmental factors and evaluating opportunities gives flexibility to the business. To give an example of the effects of close and general environmental factors, regional conflicts in the recent past, migration, in particular COVID-19 pandemic, and polarizations at the global level adversely affect the tourism strategies of countries and therefore the strategies of tourism enterprises creating uncertainty in the sector. Despite all these uncertainties, it is thought that the sustainability and corporate social responsibility approaches of the enterprises may vary according to the structure of the resources of the enterprises (Lee and Jin-Li (2018).

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be defined as the human-centered human resources and community management process of enterprises (Kotler and Lee, 2002). Enterprises with CSR try to establish supply chain management that fairly combines the expectations of all stakeholders, especially employees, with the expectations of the enterprise.

Sustainability, in this sense, can be defined as the creation and development of long-term future-oriented environmental, economic, and social value by enterprises. The three pillars of sustainability are the society, economy and environment, (people, profit and planet). Social Sustainability refers to the continuation of the activities of the enterprises by preserving the lower and upper social structures and socio-cultural structures of the enterprise without deteriorating the internal environment, the close environment (sectoral environment), and the general environment (political, economic, social, technological) (Nugraheni, et al., 2019). In this context, business strategies that will not jeopardize the transfer of a healthy society structure to future generations are defined as socially sustainable strategies. Economic sustainability stands for the economic activities of the enterprise without damaging social and environmental factors and without wasting the resources will need in the future (Qiu et al.,2019). Environmental sustainability links the continuation of the activities of the enterprise without damaging the ecological environment (Heesup, 2021), in which it operates and without losing the resources to be transferred to future generation.

Engaging and collaborating with various stakeholders, including local communities, government bodies, non-profit organizations, and other businesses, is essential for effective CSR and sustainability in the tourism sector. Also, can help in understanding and addressing the concerns and expectations of different groups, building partnerships, and fostering sustainable tourism development.