Report on Sustainability Practice

Due Date: 18 May, 3pm Thursday, Week 11

Weight:40%, Length:2000 words (+-) 10%, excluding references and appendices

Task Description:

This report requires students to critically evaluate tourism practices and how such practices align with or deviate from principles of sustainability. Students need to choose a tourism business in order to analyse their sustainability practices based on given criteria. The tasks include:

  1. Briefly outline the business chosen for this assessment. The business needs to be either an accommodation provider or a tour company operating in a specific location. Travel agencies and global hotel chains are NOT appropriate businesses for this assessment. It is recommended that the business needs to have enough information available from online sources or that students can visit the operation to assist in their assessment.
  2. Identify the most important sustainability issues and challenges facing the business and its operation.
  3. Apply either Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria for Hotels and Tour Operatorsor The Ecotourism Australia ROC and ECO certification criteria to assess how the business is addressing sustainability. Identify three (3) areas of strength and three (3) areas of weakness in the business’s sustainability practice. The application of the criteria will be directed by the student’s assessment of the important sustainability issues facing the operation.
  4. Based on your analysis and identification of weaknesses, make three recommendations to the business to improve sustainability practices. Include peer reviewed articles to identify the problems associated with implementing sustainable tourism and how suggested improvements could be made.

Notes:

  1. You should have a minimum of 8 academic journal articles to support your analysis.
  2. Do NOT cite your lecturers, or lecture notes as references.
  3. You may use newspaper articles and other website reports as evidence of issues in addition to peer reviewed articles.

ReportStructure and Required Contents

  1. Introduction(introducing the business and the purpose of the report)
  2. Sustainability Issues(key economic, socio-cultural, and environmental issues and challenges the business is facing)
  3. Assessment of Operation(assess the business operation against key criteria in the sustainability certification program you have chosen)
  4. Strengths and weaknesses (based on your analysis in the last section, identify 3 strengths and 3 problematic areas of the business’ sustainable practice)
  5. Potential Improvementand concluding comments (make 3 recommendations based on the literature and/or best practices and conclude the report)
  6. References(use APA style)

Name: ______Student # ______

Criteria / HD / D / C / Pass / Fail
Above 8.5/10
Above 12.75/15 Above 4.25/5 / 8.5-7.5/10
12.75-11.25/15
4.25-3.75/5 / 7.5-6.5/10
11.25-9.75/15
3.75-3.25/5 / 6.5-5/10
9.75-7.5/15
3.25-2.5/5 / Below 5/10
Below 7.5/15
Below 2.5/5
Identifies an appropriate business, outlines the business (10 marks) / Identifies a business that perfectly fits the purpose of the assignment. Excellent description of the business / Identifies a business that well fits the purpose of the assignment. Very good description of the business / Identifies a business that fits the purpose of the assignment. Clear description of the business / Identifies a business that slightly fits the purpose of the assignment. Basic description of the business / Picks an inappropriate business, little or no description of the business
Identifiesrelevant sustainable principles in practice (10 marks) / Demonstrates a deep analysis of sustainability principles / Demonstrates good analysis of sustainability principles / Identifies some analysis of sustainability principles / Adequate analysis of sustainability principles / Limited analysis
Demonstrates an ability to apply sustainability criteria in the tourism operation
(10 marks) / Comprehensively applies sustainability criteria to the tourism sector demonstrating thorough understanding / Effectively applies sustainability criteria to the tourism sector in a manner which demonstrates good understanding / Applies sustainability criteria to tourism sector demonstrating adequate understanding / Attempts to apply sustainability criteria to tourism sector / Provides only superficial application of principles to tourism sector
Demonstrates an ability to critically analyse and suggest improvements.
(15 marks) / Comprehensive analysis and a range of improvements with an understanding of relationships / Good analysis and some improvements with an understanding of relationships / Adequate analysis and a range of improvements with adequate understanding of relationships / Adequate analysis and a range of improvements with limited understanding of relationships / Incomplete analysis and a range of improvements with limited understanding of relationships
Style and Mechanics of Writing
(10 marks) / Writes by integrating and interpreting other’s and own material in a fluent and critical manner. No spelling errors and no grammatical errors / Writes by integrating and interpreting others’ and own material in a fluent manner. No spelling errors and occasional grammatical errors / Mostly writes by integrating and interpreting others and own material. No spelling errors and some grammatical errors / Mostly writes by paraphrasing others’ material but with some integration of own ideas. Some spelling errors and some grammatical errors / Mostly writes by paraphrasing others’ material. Many spelling errors and many grammatical errors
Adherence to referencing and citation standards
(5 marks) / Accurate referencing which consistently adheres to APA style throughout / Good, consistent referencing which generally adheres to APA style throughout / Solid referencing which generally adheres to APA style throughout / Some attempt at referencing APA style / Poor attempt at referencing APA style
Total Mark______/60