Global sustainability and responsibility in hotels and cruising industry

The tourism and hospitality industry is one of the largest industries in the world registering exponential growth over the past years. This study was conducted with the aim of highlighting various aspects of sustainable development from the hospitality industry perspective and the impact of tourism growth on the global touristic destinations. Attracting over 12 million passengers a year, the cruising industry alone contributes substantially by introducing every year a large number of mega size ships carrying over 5000 passengers on board. World renowned hotel chains have been expanding their regional presence providing services to millions of tourists and adventure seekers. The rapid development of the hospitality industry brings along undisputable challenges in environmental protection and natural landscape conservation. The methodology involves a review of the existing literature which concludes that around the world the situation is being addressed by the major players within the worlds’ biggest industry at international conferences and various interactive panel discussions in their attempt to tackle the severe issues of tourism growth and creatively find innovative solutions to ensure environmental sustainability. Our research underlines the successful implementation of the environmental management standards within the cruising industry. The objectives of the global management standards are to ensure compliance in regulatory practices intended to preserve the environment through sustainable and responsible tourism. From this perspective, our analysis indicates that the hotel industry is in a formal adoption phase, posing consistency and implementation challenges across the industry and geographical regions. The overall findings of this research are briefly discussed.