the sustainability mindset in hospitalitySustainable development is about much than simply jumping on the ‘green bandwagon’. It denotes a holistic approach to business incorporating people, the planet and profit in a drive toward longterm profitability.
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Inextricably related, the tourism and hospitality fields touch nearly all of the 17 SDGs in one way or another. For one example, Responsible Production and Consumption focuses on the development and implementation of tools to monitor sustainability in tourism, with reference to job creation and the promotion of local culture and products.
Many great stories demonstrate how families have applied good business practices to global hospitality and tourism opportunities and have thus been able to create sustainable livelihoods while protecting the planet. |
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Families and an increasing number of sector corporates now know that hospitality should promote:
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Many great stories demonstrate how families have applied good business practices to global hospitality and tourism opportunities and have thus been able to create sustainable livelihoods while protecting the planet.
According to the ILO, 73 percent of Mali’s economically active population works in the informal economy, with one-third of workers between 15 and 39 years old. Youth unemployment is significantly higher than the national average, at 12 percent nationwide and 32 percent in the capital city of Bamako. All countries in the region face a similarly toxic mix: high youth unemployment, environmental degradation, insecurity.
Mossadeck Bally from Mali chairs Azalaï Hotels Group, a leading hotel chain in West Africa. Key among the several challenges Azalaï faces is the lack of properly trained staff, particularly among the youth workforce. Azalaï addresses unemployment by running a vocational school for the hospitality industry. Bally explained that ‘We could never find enough trained staff to work in and run our hotels. Although unemployment remains high in West Africa, we were struggling to find the right candidates. We decided to open a center for hospitality training ourselves. Governments in Africa spend billions on traditional and vocational training. However, when these young people enter the labor market, they lack the skills needed. There is a huge gap between market demand and what educational institutions are supplying. We were lucky to find a French advisor who had opened an impressive hospitality training school for local needs in Cambodia. He helped us setting up our center in Bamako.’
Bally detailed the Azalaï initiative. ‘We want to build a pipeline of well trained and highly skilled labor force not only for our own hotels but also for the sector at large. To start, we selected a group of 40 young people for training, who had basic education and passed an entrance exam. Their training was split into two parts – practical on the job skills training and theoretical learning. All 40 graduated with a certificate and are employed. The costs of training which includes boarding and lodging stands at 4000 USD per student. Ten percent of this is covered by the student; we cover the rest. This is how private philanthropy and local business work together to address youth unemployment in Mali. We are happy that a corporate need can meet a social need and create a win-win situation,’ Bally concluded.
Thousands of miles away, Melita and Rory Hunter co-founded Song Saa Foundation in Cambodia. In 2005, they stumbled upon one of the many Cambodian islands where fishing communities had been driven out during the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979). Witnessing the extent of marine environment devastation, the Hunters set up Song Saa to aid the local community’s development efforts toward environmental cleanup, an economically- sustainable solid-waste management system and a protection zone around the islands. To generate revenue and offer employment to the community, a for-profit luxury retreat was built.
One important indicator of Song Saa Foundation’s success is the continued presence of local communities on the island, which could have disappeared through migration to the mainland in search of income opportunities. Relationship building was key to that success, creating trust and vested interest on the island. Success creates its own followers and neighboring communities are adopting marine-life restoration as well. Song Saa Foundation together with the local community has thus become a major force for sustainable marine-life regeneration in the archipelago.
According to the ILO, 73 percent of Mali’s economically active population works in the informal economy, with one-third of workers between 15 and 39 years old. Youth unemployment is significantly higher than the national average, at 12 percent nationwide and 32 percent in the capital city of Bamako. All countries in the region face a similarly toxic mix: high youth unemployment, environmental degradation, insecurity.
Mossadeck Bally from Mali chairs Azalaï Hotels Group, a leading hotel chain in West Africa. Key among the several challenges Azalaï faces is the lack of properly trained staff, particularly among the youth workforce. Azalaï addresses unemployment by running a vocational school for the hospitality industry. Bally explained that ‘We could never find enough trained staff to work in and run our hotels. Although unemployment remains high in West Africa, we were struggling to find the right candidates. We decided to open a center for hospitality training ourselves. Governments in Africa spend billions on traditional and vocational training. However, when these young people enter the labor market, they lack the skills needed. There is a huge gap between market demand and what educational institutions are supplying. We were lucky to find a French advisor who had opened an impressive hospitality training school for local needs in Cambodia. He helped us setting up our center in Bamako.’
Bally detailed the Azalaï initiative. ‘We want to build a pipeline of well trained and highly skilled labor force not only for our own hotels but also for the sector at large. To start, we selected a group of 40 young people for training, who had basic education and passed an entrance exam. Their training was split into two parts – practical on the job skills training and theoretical learning. All 40 graduated with a certificate and are employed. The costs of training which includes boarding and lodging stands at 4000 USD per student. Ten percent of this is covered by the student; we cover the rest. This is how private philanthropy and local business work together to address youth unemployment in Mali. We are happy that a corporate need can meet a social need and create a win-win situation,’ Bally concluded.
Thousands of miles away, Melita and Rory Hunter co-founded Song Saa Foundation in Cambodia. In 2005, they stumbled upon one of the many Cambodian islands where fishing communities had been driven out during the Khmer Rouge period (1975-1979). Witnessing the extent of marine environment devastation, the Hunters set up Song Saa to aid the local community’s development efforts toward environmental cleanup, an economically- sustainable solid-waste management system and a protection zone around the islands. To generate revenue and offer employment to the community, a for-profit luxury retreat was built.
One important indicator of Song Saa Foundation’s success is the continued presence of local communities on the island, which could have disappeared through migration to the mainland in search of income opportunities. Relationship building was key to that success, creating trust and vested interest on the island. Success creates its own followers and neighboring communities are adopting marine-life restoration as well. Song Saa Foundation together with the local community has thus become a major force for sustainable marine-life regeneration in the archipelago.