Geography

Tourism requires environmental resources as core ingredients and compelling backdrops for the production of tourism experiences. Paradoxically it also depends on the protection of the ecological integrity of these features for sustained competitiveness. This ‘resource paradox’ has epitomized relationships between tourism and the environment for decades. However, unprecedented reportings of the frequency, severity and persistence of adverse weather conditions; climate change; natural disasters; disease outbreaks; and various forms of environmental pollution, cumulatively highlight the urgency for more systematically managing tourism's resource paradox. This paper characterizes the industry's environmental and sustainability performance, and suggests planning and management approaches that will be needed to move it towards a more sustainable future. It uses a case study of ‘sustainability-focused’ tourism destination planning to illustrate the type of collective actions that must occur if the industry is to successfully manage tourism's challenging environmental relationships. It is argued that more collective and vision-oriented approaches to tourism industry planning are needed to address broader and more pervasive environmental and sustainability challenges.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a term increasingly employed to denote ethical behavior with respect to various shareholder, employee, consumer, supplier, and competitor stakeholder groups. It is often shaped and expressed through community engagement strategies in which firms reach out to these groups to address societal concerns as well as corporate objectives. Little research probes how CSR relationships are initiated and evolve in tourism destinations. This article outlines the key theoretical foundations of CSR and illustrates how these concepts may be translated into stakeholder engagement strategies in mountain resort destinations. It uses empirical research findings from case studies of CSR relationships between Intrawest, a large North American resort corporation, and stakeholders in two Canadian mountain tourism destinations. It is argued that the extent to which these CSR strategies are employed is a function of both in situ stakeholder saliency and the ability of community stakeholders to provide what has been referred to as a "social license to operate."

Olympic Games often require organizing committees to construct major sports venues. As private entities not clearly accountable to the public, these organizing committees or “Olympic Corporations” have been accused of bypassing normal planning protocols, and in the process transforming the nature of host cities with little stakeholder consultation. This article traces the evolution of relationships between Vancouver 2010’s Olympic Corporation and stakeholders concerned with Cypress Olympic Venue (COV) development. It suggests that because a balance of power existed between the Olympic Corporation and stakeholder groups, the relationship transformed from being primarily antagonistic to a more constructive configuration through successive interactions. While the Olympic Corporation’s stakeholder engagement strategies appear successful at the COV, stakeholder respondents still exhibit skepticism about Olympic organizers. This article emphasizes the importance of crafting a “social license to operate” in the Olympic planning context and uncovers some essential prerequisites for the development of corporate-community relationships.

Key words: Stakeholder engagement; Olympic Games; Corporate social responsibility; Social license to operate; Sustainability; Vancouver 2010

Espousal of the sustainability rubric is becoming widespread in the event industry.  A business systems-oriented literature has emerged that helps event organizers plan for and measure success of more environmentally responsible or sustainable events.  While top-down approaches to sustainability are increasingly well established, the practical application of these programs in the unique event planning and management context is less well understood. This paper aims to build understanding of operations-level opportunities and constraints that may be faced by environmental practitioners in event organizations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee’s (VANOC) Environmental Management Team (EMT), a group of environmental professionals embedded in VANOC’s venue infrastructure business unit. Several organizational strategies are described but intra-organizational relationships are found to be the medium by which the environmental sustainability concept is actualized at venues. Although the EMT operated within the standardized event delivery model established by the International Olympic Committee, it is hoped the Vancouver 2010 experience will be useful for other event organizers instituting and delivering environmental programs.