Sustainability motivations in small tourism enterprises in European protected areas

A survey of around 900 tourism enterprises in 57 European protected areas showed that tourism companies implement sustainable policies for different reasons.

Sustainability Motivations

1. Small companies are for example more involved in taking responsibility for being sustainable than previously expected, including trying to benefit from eco-savings related operational practices but they are also report a wide range of social and economic responsibility actions.
2. Primarily business driven tourist companies implement mainly eco-savings activities and are commercially oriented, limiting them in implementing sustainable development actions.
3. Larger tourism companies typically respond to perceived stakeholder pressure and report a broad spectrum of activities.
4. Lifestyle and value driven tourism companies report the greatest number of sustainable environmental, social and economic activities. This study has implications for policy programs promoting sustainability behavior change based primarily on a business case argument.