Corporate social responsibility in the hotel sector : A Maltese Islands case study

Abstract

Since 2010, tourism has experienced exponential growth in the Maltese Islands. This increase has added additional pressure (both social and environmental) to this small island state, highlighting the important role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, information regarding hotels’ CSR initiatives in the Maltese Islands is limited despite its potential to address these pressures. This small scale study was carried out to find out what CSR best practices are implemented in local 5, 4 and 3 star hotels along with barriers and incentives they encountered. A qualitative method was adopted using semi-structured interviews conducted with relevant personnel from ten chosen hotels by means of purposive sampling. The data collected was analyzed by means of thematic analysis.

Analysis of the findings revealed three themes. The first theme identified was ‘CSR Practices’ where the activities related to CSR were identified for each hotel. These activities were divided into activities for society and for the environment. In addition to this, the findings identified how initiatives are communicated with stakeholders. Smaller establishments had less initiatives in place, which may be due to the currently missing National Action Plan (NAP). The second theme was ‘Employees and CSR’ which involved activities organized for employees which in turn give them a sense of community. The third theme that emerged ‘Balance Between CSR Practices and Profits’ shows that although hotels can invest a lot more in CSR, it is not always feasible due to the hotel’s limited resources.

The main limitation of the study was the small number of respondents who participated. Thus, one of the recommendations is to replicate the study in a quantitative manner to find out best practices across the hotel sector in the Maltese Islands. Additionally, the study should be replicated once there is a NAP, as the results may vary.