The Journey Toward Sustainability Reporting: How Accountable are the Tourism Industries?

This research investigates the multinational corporate powerhouses in the tourism industries to determine the extent to which they are providing sustainability information to their stakeholders and are accountable for their activities. As well, case studies of the emerging economies of both China and India are included due to their large populations, growing middle classes and the resultant potential future impacts. Our findings show that sustainability reporting in the tourism industries lags behind other industries in all three of our samples. The most accountable sectors overall are Air, Other Transportation, and Accommodations. As well, Casinos frequently provide information on their websites but do not provide full reports. Our research indicates a need for a) tourism sector specific global reporting standards that integrate contextual nuances, b) effective monitoring, and c) partnership building and benchmarking through research.