How can small tourism firms innovatively progress to become more sustainable

What is it about?

Faced with the huge challenges of achieving both the globally agreed Climate Change Goals and Sustainable Development Goals we need to better understand how innovation occurs in the service sector and in particular for small firms in tourism who make up the vast majority of commercial activity in this sector. Until now there has been very little 'real world' evidence and limited theoretical development on how innovation occurs so that we might consider better policy decisions and destination support mechanisms to stimulate responsible progressive change. This paper is the first to report on 14 years of continuous progress by one hospitality firm and illustrates the challenges and opportunities. It offers a new model to show how innovation may progress, in particular, the role of the owners/managers values and knowledge. Practical examples are shared and graphs illustrate the types of social, environmental and economic changes that occur.

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Why is it important?

The is the first study of its type. It draws of innovation theories and provides practical examples. It is vitally important to better understand sustainability innovation because tourism faces significant challenges that currently prevent it from achieving the Paris Agreements Net Carbon Emissions goals and sustainable development ambitions.

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