Boosting Corporate Social Responsibility in Tourist Destinations through Loyalty Programs and Stakeholder Collaboration

Abstract

Two opposite approaches gravitate around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): shareholder vs. stakeholder approach. The first paradigm is classical: stating a company has one primary purpose i.e. profitability and is responsible to its shareholders. The second one sees the company not merely in function of its primary goal but also responsible to its employees, providers, local community, the environment etc. It is indisputable that a company operates in a certain context and in order to pursue its reason of existence it has to maintain good relationship and collaborate with others directly or indirectly involved or affected by its business, to a degree that is in line with its primary goal. This starting point was the base to integrate CSR and relationship marketing. CSR is a voluntary based concept. The purpose of this paper is to enhance CRS implementation in tourism. The authors propose a model that will encourage tourism companies to systematically and comprehensively include various CSR practices in their business, which will have a positive impact on the destination as a whole. The realization of the model gathers qualified tourism companies in an exclusive destination loyalty program and further promotes them as superior tourism providers. The involvement of all stakeholders of the tourist destinations in individual phases of the project is part of the proposed model. The model is easily applicable in practice.