Key elements of triple bottom line performance and evaluation

In this report, based on the theories of Stakeholders and Triple Bottom Line TBL, we will clearly evaluate Buon Don district current tourism performance and its impact on government, ser

Stakeholders and

Sustainable Tourism

Destination Report

BUSM 4567

Table of contents

3 Key Elements of Triple Bottom Line Performance and

1 Introduction

According to Vietnamnews (2019), Mr Nguyen Trung Khanh – director of general of the Vietnam Tourism Administration a rmed that sustainable tourism development is an important goal in the ffi'Strategy for Vietnam Tourism Development by the Year 2030 with a Vision to 2050' To assist in achieving this objective, our group has chosen to analyze Buon Don district, which is located in Dak Lak province and famous for various beauty-spots as well as precious cultures and festivals being celebrated every year (Figure 1) There are 18 ethnic groups living in Buon Don district, of which the ethnic minorities account for 47% and mainly E-de, Tay, Thai, Nung and M’nong (Danvan news

2018) In general, the development of tourism in Buon Don has received many positive statisticsrecently Kha (2019) reported that during the Lunar New Year 2019, the total number of tourists coming to Buon Don was estimated around 46.740, which contributed 4.4 billion revenue and rose 66% compared to the Lunar New Year 2018

However, not only this district but also Dak Lak province are facing challenges regarding

investment attracted, the isolated geographical location, low starting point of tourism economy or inadequate tourism infrastructure (Cuong 2007) Last year, while the population of Buon Don was 64.551 people (Bao 2019), there were 950.000 tourists coming to this district (Dinh 2019), which means this district has around 25 visitors for every resident In this report, based on the theories

of Stakeholders and Triple Bottom Line (TBL), we will clearly evaluate Buon Don district current tourism performance and its impact on government, service provider, visitor and host After

identifying economic, social and environmental aspects related to each stakeholder, we also o er ffer some recommendations that encourage significant adjustments to reduce negative consequencesand make this destination become a memorable ecotourism experience for every tourist

Figure 1 Buon Don’s beauty-spots including Yok Don National Park, Serepok River, Don

Village (Google image n.d.)

2 Key elements of stakeholder theory

The stakeholder theory plays an essential role in making sustainable tourism development to be successful (Miles 2017) Besides, based on Edward Freeman (1984, p 46), stakeholders can be defined as ‘Groups or an individual who can a ect or be a ected by the achievement of them ffer ffer

organization's objectives’ To maintain sustainable development in tourism, the majority of holders are responding to the need between the internal (employees) and the external (customers)

stake-to achieve the benefits Besides, the business decision a ects people and their well-being (Stake-ffer holder Theory 1996) Hence, in order to be satisfied through the organization, the organization should make it fair for the related parties The majority of the evolution of the stakeholder theory is focused on the strategies that firms can take so as to reduce the limit of shareholder theory to

sustainability (Narbel & Mu 2017) In this report, stakeholders divided into numerous potential ffer groups including the government, tourism service providers, tourists, and the community

a) Tourist

Tourists are one of the factors in the stakeholder contributing to economic growth and improving community life However, they can bring both positive as well as negative e ects for the tourism ffer industry Moreover, visitors including domestic and foreign can trade the culture and create morejob opportunities to support the local community in Dak Lak The report stated that this province welcomed more than 950,000 visitors in 2019, which increased by nearly 19% compared to

2018 (Dinh 2019) This shows the development stage for Dak Lak and tourists are extremely important to help the Dak Lak tourism reach a sustainable tourism destination

b) Tourism service providers:

The second category of stakeholder is the service provider including hospitality, restaurant, travelagent, and others that are related to serving the tourist's needs Furthermore, opening the airwaytraveling to Dak Lak will bring various profits for the tourism industry (Duong 2019) Hence, this isthe great opportunity to generate income for the locals as well as increase the price to develop tourism On the contrary, development might go together with harmful e ects on the ffer

environment For example, according to Long (2019), tens of hectares of forests were burned and destroyed in the border district Therefore, service providers are responsible for maintaining the profit, assisting the eco-friendly and providing better life for the community in Dak Lak

c) Government:

Government is a third vital factor in sustainable development since they not only improve the econ-omy but also provide more advantages to the local community Based on Cuong (2020), Dak Lak has improved well on the process of connecting the economy to create growth and development for helping the community Besides, to achieve sustainable development, Dak Lak istrying to perfect its tourism development for the host community and the government has helped the locals to support the economy (Bui 2020)

d)Host area community:

Murphy (1985, cited in Tourism Notes) stated that the long-term success in the tourism industry depends on the acceptance and assistance from the host community To improve the products and services, this province tries to standardize, recognize, and certify 1-2 national 5-star products (Nhan 2019) Thus, the community also has a responsibility to ensure the tourism industry reaches further

As the population in Dak Lak is approximately 1.869 million in 2019 (Bao 2019), the locals should engage in activities that aimed to improve Dak Lak in the near future

PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS

TBL was first coined by the consulting group AccountAbility in the mid-1990s and later explained

by John Elkington in 1998 (Stoddard 2012) It is a term that is used to indicate the economic, environ-mental and social responsibilities of organization and also a practical framework of

sustainable development In essence, this notion is the belief that the essential condition to make the company develop permanently is providing products or services in such a manner to

guarantee financial profits, environmental quality and social justice to its stakeholders (Żak 2015).Buon Don perfor-mance will be clearly described through these TBL:

a) Economic:

The economic sustainability has a strong connection between the progress of the organization and the growth of the country’ economy and how well they could engage to support it (Alhaddi 2015) It is propounded that the companies should make an e ort to prevent financial issues and maintain ffer stakeholders’ wealth by o ering a higher proportion of earnings to them (Nursimloo, Ramdhony & ffer Mooneeapen 2020) Specifically, to help the community overcome poverty and improve their living standards, company needs to be responsible for o ering more job and training opportunities and ffer contributing to the government revenue such as applying entrance fees or paying taxes

Duyen (2019) indicated that in 2010, Dak Lak had 1800 employees working in the tourism industry Even though the growth rate was approximately 13% yearly, the quality of human resources is still facing di culties In particular, there were 1000 inexperienced sta that accounted for 55%, which ffi ffer directly a ects the quality of tourism operations in this province Additionally, there are no more than ffer

100 tour guides and some of them aren't competent at di erent languages including Korean, ffer

Chinese and Japanese to meet the demands of visitors (Trung 2019)

b) Social:

Dangi and Jamal (2016) stated that social sustainability aims to respect human rights and requireequitable distribution of benefits, especially tackling poverty in community In detail, this aspect targets to address problems that relate to the company’ stakeholders such as community involve-ment, fair wages and the respect of diversity cultures (Alhaddi 2015) Applied in tourism, the organi-zation should put e orts to support community to enhance their livelihood as well as ffer conserve precious cultures Because sometimes when international tourists come, they might negatively a ect the residents’ life due to the di erence between languages or cultures, which ffer ffer could result in conflicts or arguments

During Lunar New Year 2018, Buon Don organized some events such as the Gong culture, amazing traditional dance and singing performances, which created more jobs for residents, boosted rela-

tionships between locals and visitors (Nguyen 2018) In addition, this activity had successfully spread the valuable spirit and culture of the Central Highlands to every tourist (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Tourists enjoyed performances in Ban Don during the Lunar New Year 2018 (Dantri 2018)

c) Environmental:

‘The primary purpose of the environmental bottom line is to preserve the environment’

(Nursimloo, Ramdhony & Mooneeapen 2020, p 768) Minimizing pollution, protecting biological diversity and natural heritage are some main objectives of this aspect (Dangi & Jamal 2016) Additionally, based on The Wise Travellers (2019), two dimensions that environmental

sustainability encompasses are not only natural environment but also built environment

regarding landscape architecture Unfortunately, according to Le (2020), a tourist in Dak Lak sawelephants being forced to carry tour-ists wading through the river with heavy steps and unhappy faces After finishing, this animal was pitifully chained and shackled Moreover, from 2007 to

2014, there were more than 21 elephants died due to lack of rest, food or the massive frequency

of serving visitors (Nguyen 2015) Besides, a 40 year-old elephant was founded to be dead because of exhaustion while serving tourism at Ban Don village (Thanh 2015) (Figure 3)

Figure 3 An elephant died while serving tourism at Don Village (Dantri 2015)

4 GOVERNMENT INTERESTS AND TBL

a) Economic sustainability

With the correct assessment of the potential of Buon Don, the Phu Nong Agriculture and

Tourism Cooperative has deployed an ecotourism model for the Sêrêpốk 3 hydroelectric lake (Le Thanh 2020) In order to achieve green tourism criteria, the government has actively made existing assets bring better economic productivity (Nhu Yen 2020) Based on the premise of VietGAP, the highest standard of agriculture practice in Vietnam (ICB n.d.), under-exploitable fields have been upgraded to eco-orchards invested in landscape to attract tourists

Nevertheless, the climatic conditions in BuonDon are not favourable to implement this plan(The Hung 2020), which can a ect people’s livesffer

if crops fail However, it cannot be denied thatthe e ect this model brings to this destinationffer after COVID pandemic It has helped Buon Donpromote tourism, welcoming more than 141Figure 4 Sightseeing areas built on both sides of thousand visitors in May and June (Le HuongSerepok river (Thoibaokinhdoanh 2020) 2020)

b) Societal sustainability

Along with the tourism economy, the government also

focuses on creating long-term self-business

opportuni-ties Local people, especially ethnic minorities, are

encouraged to participate in livestock training courses

(Le Huong 2020) Since then, more technical animal

husbandry in parallel with many positive changes in life

(Thanh Loan 2020) Combined with the ecotourism

model, the number of poor households has decreased

significantly (Le Huong 2020) In addition to

maintaining a civilised society, the Department of

Culture, Sports and Tourism has implemented the

"Criteria of Conduct in the Family" in Buon Don to

manage domestic violence issues

Figure 5 : People apply the knowledgefrom training courses to animal hus-bandry (Thoibaokinhdoanh 2020)

Otherwise, in order to popularise training courses on a large scale, the government is still

having di culty in mobilising funding from enterprises (Quoc An 2020) Besides, a part of ffi

people are lazy to work, putting more pressure on the local authorities

c) Environmental sustainability

According to BBC news (2017), elephant tourism is considered a cruel activity because of the severe

e ects on their health Therefore, Dak Lak provincial authorities eliminated this type of service (Tranffer Hoa 2020) They flexibly switch to elephant-friendly ones such as bathing or feeding them (ibid.)

Meanwhile, the ecological fields that attract visitors also push local people to consciously

preserve the environment (Nhu Yen 2020) Conservation of natural resources is the leading sustainable devel-opment direction for the specifics of Buon Don tourism (Phuong Dinh 2019)

On the other hand, welcoming the large number of tourists imposes some restrictions Despitethe tourist’s tendency to choose a destination for a clean environment, the local government stillneeds garbage collection teams as tourists litter (Nhu Yen 2020) Not only that, cases of illegallogging are still going on even though the authorities have stepped in (Tran M & Bui C 2020)

Figure 6 : Trial of a case of illegal logging in Buon Don (Toaandaklak 2020)

From the Governance perspective, the proposed approaches are all linked together to satisfy the TBL Each line plays an important role in the others in terms of sustainability With a sustainable environment, the economy will be stable, from which a society can be considered sustainable when it can meet people's living standards The government not only enhances the economic value of the region but also helps many house- holds escape poverty, and at the same time demonstrates the responsibilities of them for the environment.

5 SERVICE PROVIDER INTERESTS AND TBL

a) Economic sustainability

As mentioned in ‘Key Elements Of Triple Bottom Line Performance Evaluations’, the quality of human resources in Daklak is facing di culties More specifically, the Department of Culture, ffiSports and Tourism of Dak Lak stated that before 2017, the human resource for tourism in the area had approxi-mately 70% untrained However, after this period, the percentage has declined

to just 20% left (Dinh 2020)

Tourism employees have been trained professional knowledge and skills through the channels of the Provincial Tourism Information and Promotion Center, Dak Lak Tourism Association or business-es that collaborate their training program with universities, colleges, vocational schools (Dinh 2020)

Figure 7 Tourism employment training channels logo, eg Provincial TourismInformation and Pro-motion Center, Dak Lak Tourism Association, Tay Nguyen

University

The quality of human resources in Dak Lak area improved bring benefits to service providers In the tourism industry, human resources that are prepared with the right knowledge, skills and ability are necessary for the business (Jennifer, C, Brian, P, Steven, D 2011) There are opportunities for

tourism services that could be done by high quality human resources such as doing marketing

campaigns, implementing strong application of evaluation criteria for the tourism activities, applying science and technology, developing smart tourism for the area, etc (Phuong 2018)

However, some threats are: the weak social infrastructure, the local people's education level and the quality of labor are low, the infrastructure network is not fully developed, the declining

ecological environment On top of that, tourism products in the area are based on available resources from the natural, the lifestyle of ethnic minorities that go without investment,

exploitation and development in order to attract visitors There is also no close connection

between the tourist destinations in the area These factors are big threats for service providers asthe area is still underdeveloped and require major support from the government