Sustainability Balanced Scorecard

The tourism industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Due to increased prosperity and mobility, more and more people are traveling or enjoying their free time. But with the advantages, so have the disadvantages. CO2 emissions, mass tourism and energy and water consumption contribute to the deterioration of the environment. Also, not the entire local population benefits from tourist income at the destination itself. The tourism sector is becoming so large, their responsibility in the field of sustainability is therefore required. Since the 1990s, the tourism sector has started working on this issue for the first time, which has led to one main question among experts, namely: how can the tourism sector continue to grow, while at the same time contributing to its future and that of the planet?  The solution to this is sustainable tourism. In sustainable tourism, both tourists and providers take into account the 3 Ps: (1) Planet: this concerns everything that has to do with the earth; (2) People: this mainly concerns the socio-cultural relations; (3) Profit: This is about what the profit is for the local population. Often is 'Prosperity' used here, which covers it better. Almost every branch of the tourism/recreational sector is thinking about how the destination, event or trip can be organized more sustainably. Today's tourist is more aware than ever of the earth and and life on earth. The tourist looks more critically at sustainability when he or she is choosing a destination. In recent decades, the definition of sustainability has shifted from a purely economic model for scarce resources to the guiding principles for future-oriented living together. Tourism - as the sum of all tourist activities - finds itself in a dilemma in this context: on the one hand, its existence is often based on the intactness of the tourist destination's natural and cultural resources, so that it can be considered as a ally. On the other hand, a tourist destination sometimes suffers the consequences of undesirable ecological and socio-cultural activities that affect the integrity of natural and cultural resources. Sustainability management with the Balanced Scorecard has been developed based on the idea that the various actors look at their own performance from multiple perspectives in order to realize a (joint) sustainable strategy. 

The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard is a tool to maintain consistent and continuous control over the strategy to be implemented. Special about the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard is that also non-monetary and soft success factors can systematically taken into account in the long-term success of a company. This also makes it interesting for the integration of environmental and social aspects, i.e. as a tool for sustainable entrepreneurship. Based on a lot of 'trial and error', the Sustainability Balanced Scorecard has been adapted in such a way that it can be applied perfectly within sustainability management in the hospitality sector.