Table 6.2 Atalante’s sheet
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No. of employee and average annual turnover
Employees: 23 Turnover: 10,500,000€ Main destinations offered by the tour
operator
60 destinations and 300 itineraries across the world: Africa, North and South America, Asia and Europe
Average no. of annual clients Clients: 6,000
Some information about the demand Clients are mainly from France, Belgium and Switzerland. They are between 30 and 65 years old
They are individual clients or they travel in couple, with their family (20 % of travels includes children), with friends or with an organised group
20 % of travel packages are tailor-made holidays Motivation for the decision to implement
CSR or to specialise in responsible tourism
The motivation for following a responsible path is the result of the founders’ desire to translate into business their passion for walking travels carried out with respect for people and places Since its opening in 1986, Atalante has decided to
pay attention to the different meanings and implications of travelling: discover of new places, meeting of different people and culture, cultural exchange, support to local development Policies and actions for the environmental
preservation
Among the most important measures, Atalante:
Has signed an agreement with CO2Solidaire to compensate the CO2emissions produced by employees when they travel by airplane for business purposes
Finances environmental projects in destinations (for example, the installation of solar panels in Cambodia)
Uses recycled paper
Uses eco-friendly products in the office Uses new energy saving light bulbs
Proposes organic farming and fair trade products to clients
Buys organic farming and fair trade products for its employees
Policies and actions in favour of the local community in destinations
Among the most important measures, Atalante:
Provides training to local providers (for example to guides);
Finances projects for education and wellbeing of local communities in the destination
(continued)
Table 6.2 (continued)
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Policies and actions towards employees and clients
Among the most important measures in favour of employees, Atalante:
Ensures a fair salary to employees, also reim- bursing transport expenses for going to work Encourages employees to use bicycle or public
transports for going to work, if possible Avoids gender discrimination, by ensuring a fair
balance between men and women in the staff Proposes free wellness care (massages of 15 min
a week during working hours)
Promotes training and team building initiatives Among the most important measures in favour of
clients, Atalante:
Is extremely concerned with product quality (Atalante is ISO 9001 certified)
Gives transparent and comprehensive informa- tion about the destination and the holiday price Gives client the Traveller Ethic Chart suggesting behaviour and actions to support local commu- nity
Encourages clients to voluntary compensate CO2 emissions
Organises every year trecking events open to clients, partners and employees
For those clients interested in giving their con- tribution to local community in developing countries, Atalante proposes several practical activities that directly engage tourists Policies and actions for supporting the eco-
nomic growth in destinations
Atalante:
Gives priority to local suppliers
Fairly pays local providers and partners with a compensation that is higher than local com- pensation
Provides training to local providers (for example to guides)
Finances projects aimed at supporting economic growth in destination (for example projects for the development of microcredit)
Reporting system Since 2008 Atalante is ATR certified. The certifi- cation must be updated every 2 years
Projects and investments for the future Atalante is planning new projects in favour of local communities
Source: authors’ reworking on the basis of Atalante’ websites (http://www.atalante.fr/).
6.5 Some Final Considerations 105
Table 6.3 SNP Natuurreizen’s sheet
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No. of employee and average annual turnover
Employees: 70 Turnover: 28,000,000€ Main destinations offered by the tour
operator
120 destinations across the world: Europe, Asia, North and South America, Antarctic, Africa, Oceania
Average no. of annual clients Clients: 28,000
Some information about the demand Clients are all Dutch and Flemish and are on aver- age 57 years old. Group tours account for 33 % of the total demand and free individual travel- lers for 66 % FIT. Clients travel mostly in couples (especially the individual travellers) or in small group of friends/family or alone (in particular group tours). They book their holidays between 6 months and 1 day before departure
Motivation for the decision to implement CSR or to specialise in responsible tourism
Since SNP’s founders like to travel in a responsible way themselves, they have based SNP’s phi- losophy and travel supply on sustainability values. These values are shared by clients, who are interesting in travelling in a way that has a little impact on environment and local culture Policies and actions for the environmental
preservation
SNP tries to lower its impact through many ways as possible. In particular they choose small-scale accommodations (preferably certified), certified nature guides and suppliers, etc
Policies and actions in favour of the local community in destinations
Although the local community is not necessarily involved in the holiday package organisation, SNP works with local agents that follow basic guidelines on social policies
Policies and actions towards employees and clients
SNP provides its employees and tour guides with training courses and also about sustainable tourism principles
It gives transparent information to its clients and it asks their opinion and comments after the holiday
Policies and actions for supporting the eco- nomic growth in destinations
SNP supports the local community in destinations by working with local small-scale operators and accommodations only
Reporting system Since 2012, SNP is Travelife certified after going through a very extensive audit procedure. SNP underlines that the audit process is particularly challenging in terms of time and human resources that are needed to filled in the neces- sary documents
The certification must be updated every 2 years Projects and investments for the future SNP plans to improve its responsibility Source: authors’ reworking on the basis of information provided by SNP Natuurreizen
and understanding play a relevant role that maybe even more important than the expectation of economic and marketing benefits that CSR can bring to the company.
As regards the environmental and social policies, some initiatives and practices are common to all three tour operators: for example, the compensation of CO2 emissions, the use of eco-friendly products and recycled paper, the use of public transports, the cooperation with local suppliers in the destination, the guarantee of fair conditions to employees and providers, the attention to product quality and the communication of transparent information to clients.
It is finally interesting to note that the commitment towards responsible tourism and CSR implies a continuous improvement. Tour operators taken in consideration are planning other initiatives and projects to be applied next years.
6.5 Some Final Considerations 107
Assessing the Effectiveness of Reporting Systems: Why and How
Abstract This chapter proposes and describes a methodology to assess the effec- tiveness of the reporting systems for responsible tourism and CSR available in Europe, the scope being to give tourism businesses a set of elements useful to choose the program that best responds to their characteristics and requirements.
Through the application of a mathematical and multi-criteria decision model, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the main characteristics, strengths and weak- nesses of every program have been evaluated and compared, according to different criteria. Better than a qualitative analysis, AHP analyses the performance of every alternative with respect to each parameter and finally calculates a value that expresses the overall quality and effectiveness of each system in assessing business responsibility. In particular, the main criteria that have been selected are as follows:
the degree of attention paid by every program to all triple bottom line dimensions;
the opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprises to apply the system; the integration between the “certification approach” and the “responsible tourism approach”; the transparency given by the type of auditing. The method selects the best reporting system to apply, according to the importance given to each criterion taken into account.