Social Responsibility for Tourism Development in Developing Countries

So far, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (the responsibility of organisations to a triple bottom line: economy, society, environment) has been mainly used to explicate practices at a corporation/company/ organisation level in both the developed and the developing world. Its application was the outcome of a progressively growing global economy, which started to impact negatively, not only upon those shareholders that it was initially designed to serve, but also upon society and the environment at large. This is because growth can coexist with income equality and poverty, as well as inadequate provisions for health and education, and it can lead to growing corruption and environmental pollution. During the 1990s, many economic, societal and environmental scandals, such as the collapse of Enron and Andersen, Nike’s child labour and the deforestation of the Amazon, accelerated public demand for social justice. This was further assisted by human rights activists and environmental movements, as well as the emergence of NGOs, which strived to make their presence in the world.