Social Responsibility of Economic Units and the Well-Being of Society in the Tourism Sector: Example of Accommodation Facility

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) assumes that companies should justify their existence with services for various stakeholders and not with profit alone. There is a strong emphasis on the implications of CSR for managing human resources in hotels and other accommodation services, supporting local communities, and promoting environmental sustainability. This article aims to present the adjustment of business entities providing accommodation services in Poland to the CSR principles. Two aspects were examined: the environmental aspect, i.e., waste segregation and the use of economic energy receivers, while the social aspect included engaging employees, as well as investing in improving their qualifications towards pro-ecological awareness. The study was conducted on a sample of 207 owners and managers of economic entities in the accommodation sector in Poland. The Statistica software was used to analyze the obtained results, including Chi2 statistics and correspondence analysis. Based on the obtained results, it can be concluded that the employees of accommodation centers usually deal with the final segregation of waste because they believe that tourists do not follow the rules of proper segregation. Most hotels are equipped with bins for all fractions of waste. The affiliation of a center to a specific macroregion in Poland was not statistically significant in terms of waste segregation practices. Only in the southern macroregion of Poland, ordinary light bulbs are used in accommodation establishments, which account for 0.97% of the surveyed population. In other regions, ¾ establishments use energy-saving receivers in all rooms. Only 1/3 of the facilities invested in developing their staff by organizing training courses toward sustainable development. The most popular subjects were topics related to waste segregation, energy and water saving, and environmental protection.

Keywords

• corporate social responsibility
• sustainability
• sustainable tourism
• Poland
• energy saving and waste segregation