Overview
The economic viability of tourism is important to the long-term sustainability of the industry, as well as to those businesses and other agencies involved in the management of tourism destinations. In this unit you will gain an understanding of the importance of incorporating economically sustainable principles and practice in tourism businesses. From a business perspective, becoming economically sustainable means having the financial capacity to manage other aspects of the business, including the environmental and socio-cultural impacts. Topics covered in this unit include: corporate social responsibility; role of profit; yield management; sustainable marketing mix (Ps); innovation; business planning; human resource management; and the customer experience.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2018
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from In class
Students enjoyed case studies that demonstrated theory.
Ensure case study examples are included and updated for next delivery.
- critically examine the economic impacts of tourism, across enterprise, industry and destination levels;
- describe and critique a range of theories and their application to the management of economically sustainable tourism businesses;
- review and evaluate current issues and future challenges in implementing economically sustainable tourism practices in tourism businesses;
- identify and critically analyse the linkages between economic sustainability and socio-cultural and environmental sustainability principles; and
- apply your knowledge of sustainable practice to research, develop and evaluate a sustainable tourism business plan.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||
| 2 - Presentation - 20% | |||||
| 3 - Group Work - 60% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
| 4 - Research | |||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||
| 8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | ||||||||
| 2 - Presentation - 20% | ||||||||
| 3 - Group Work - 60% | ||||||||
Textbooks
Sustainable Tourism: Business Development, Operations and Management
(2015)
Authors: Carol Patterson
Human Kinetics Publishers
Champaign Champaign , Illinois , USA
ISBN: 9781450460033
Binding: Paperback
Additional Textbook Information
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 6th Edition (APA 6th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
m.thompson@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
An introduction to sustainable tourism - business planning and management.
Chapter
Chapters 1 and 13
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Strategic planning for sustainability in tourism businesses.
Chapter
Chapter 2
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Sustainability in practice - Operational development, certification and accreditation in tourism business.
Chapter
Chapters 3 and 4
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Financial sustainability of tourism businesses - Micro and macro economic perspectives.
Chapter
Chapter 9
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Human resources - Planning, management and sustainability issues.
Chapter
Chapter 11
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Principles of sustainable product and experience marketing for tourism businesses.
Chapter
Chapter 5
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Strategic marketing perspectives for sustainable tourism businesses.
Chapter
Chapters 6, 7 and 8
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Delivering on the marketing message - Customers, expectations and service delivery implications.
Chapter
Chapter 10
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Impact of innovation, disruption and risk management on business sustainability.
Chapter
Chapter 12
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Business planning and sustainability principles in a changing business environment.
Chapter
Chapter 13
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Student presentations.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
The future sustainability of the tourism industry and businesses - Challenges and opportunities.
Chapter
Where required, links to additional readings will be available on Moodle.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
This unit does not have an exam.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
This unit does not have an exam.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Written Assessment
Tourism businesses face many challenges that threaten their economic viability and sustainability. This unit provides you with an understanding of the competitive environment in which tourism businesses operate, and the importance of incorporating economically sustainable principles and practice. This assessment is designed to assess your critical thinking by identifying a problem and possible solutions to enhance the sustainability of tourism businesses.
Imagine you are the manager of a particular type of tourism business (eg a tour operator). You are required to prepare a 1500 word staff memo that outlines, with references, one of the key challenges that your business is facing to become economically sustainable.The memo should justify why the business should be sustainable. The memo should also describe how you plan to overcome this challenge by outlining the particular principle and/or practice you will introduce into your business operations. Key challenges or issues may include: triple-bottom line approach; corporate social responsibility; risk assessment; financial instability; identifying key markets; business planning or lack thereof; an environmental or community-based initiative; or human resources practice.
The memo should address the following:
· Clearly identify and analyse the key challenge being addressed, including references to the tourism literature
· Critically justify why the business should be more sustainable
· Describe your proposed solution/initiative, and how this enhances your business’ sustainability
· Provide an example of this initiative that demonstrates how it enhances sustainability
Format of the memo:
· Memo title, including student name, student number, due date
· Memo should be between 1500 words in length (excluding references)
· The memo can include pictures and other media where appropriate, to support the message
· References to sources used in the memo should be listed at the end in APA format (min. 8 academic references)
Week 6 Friday (20 Apr 2018) 6:00 pm AEST
Week 8 Monday (30 Apr 2018)
The following criteria will be assessed, with a full allocation of marks available via the marking rubric on Moodle:
· Issue identification and evaluation – clearly identify and describe the sustainability issue using key terms
· Critical analysis and evaluation – outlining the proposed initiative, include examples/media to demonstrate critical thinking
· Content development – logical flow, critical analysis, clear, concise and cohesive, use of sources and evidence
· Style and conventions – formal and informal rules inherent in expectations for writing a business memo to staff
· Syntax and mechanics – sentence construction, grammar, punctuation and spelling, references formatted in APA and meets minimum 5 required
- critically examine the economic impacts of tourism, across enterprise, industry and destination levels;
- describe and critique a range of theories and their application to the management of economically sustainable tourism businesses;
- identify and critically analyse the linkages between economic sustainability and socio-cultural and environmental sustainability principles; and
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
2 Presentation
The economic sustainability of businesses is vital to the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of tourism destinations. Additionally, economic sustainability also enhances a business’s ability to apply sustainable business practices that promote environmental and socio-cultural benefits. This assessment is designed to assess your presentation skills, and your ability to formulate and communicate a clear and concise argument. You are required to demonstrate your knowledge of theoretical sustainability principles and how these principles are applied by tourism businesses within the industry.
You are required to give a 15 minute presentation (plus 5 mins questions) on a selected tourism business that you believe demonstrates the three core sustainability principles of the triple bottom line - economic, environmental and socio-cultural sustainability. During the presentation, you should also consider and discuss the role of governance in a business’s ability to achieve its sustainability principles and practices. You are also required to submit a hard copy of your visual aids (Powerpoint slides) and reference page.
The presentation should address the following:
· Clearly identify the tourism business being discussed/analysed
· Introduce theoretical concepts including sustainability principles
· Demonstrate how the tourism business has applied theoretical principles with practical examples
· Consider additional sustainability initiatives that the tourism business may introduce
Format of the presentation:
· 15 minute presentation which may be supported with visual aids (eg Powerpoint slides)
· Copy of Powerpoint slide presentation
· Title page with name of tourism business, student name, student number, due date
· Reference page listing key sources of information referenced in APA format (min 10 academic references)
Submission of the presentation:
· A copy of the Powerpoint slides, including a reference page, is to be submitted on the day of the presentation (hard copy).
Week 11 Monday (21 May 2018) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 12 Wednesday (30 May 2018)
The following criteria will be assessed, with a full allocation of marks available via the marking rubric on Moodle:
· Identification and overview of tourism business being analysed
· Identification and understanding of theoretical sustainability principles - economic, environmental, socio-cultural and governance (including references)
· Critical evaluation of sustainability principles - demonstrate how these have been applied by the tourism business with examples
· Content development - logical flow and clarity of argument throughout presentation
· Style and conventions - formal and informal rules inherent in expectations for a presentation, including appropriate use of support materials (visual aids)
· Syntax and mechanics - of visual aids: sentence construction, grammar, punctuation and spelling, sources supported and referenced using APA format and minimum number required
- describe and critique a range of theories and their application to the management of economically sustainable tourism businesses;
- review and evaluate current issues and future challenges in implementing economically sustainable tourism practices in tourism businesses;
- identify and critically analyse the linkages between economic sustainability and socio-cultural and environmental sustainability principles; and
- apply your knowledge of sustainable practice to research, develop and evaluate a sustainable tourism business plan.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
3 Group Work
This unit examines how the long-term sustainability of the tourism industry and tourism destinations is reliant upon tourism businesses incorporating sustainable principles and practices into their operations. This assessment is designed to assess your ability to apply a theoretical understanding of sustainability principles, specifically focusing on economic sustainability, in the development of a business plan for a sustainable tourism enterprise.
In groups (2-3), you are required to prepare a business plan for a sustainable tourism business that you would like to start, have knowledge of or is fictitious. The business plan template is provided as part of the text book, with each topic of the unit incorporating key aspects that will be included in the business plan.
For distance students, an online Moodle forum will be used as a platform to enhance group formations. If required, there will be a capacity to complete this assessment individually, subject to prior approval of the Unit Co-ordinator.
The business plan should address the following:
· Business description
· Products and services
· Marketing
· Management and legal structure
· Operations
· Financial management
Format of the report:
· Follow the template provided via the Moodle page
· No longer than 3000 words (excluding title page and references)
· Title page with business name, student name/s, student number, due date
· Main body of the report should be word-processed, with appropriate layout and use of headings/sub-headings, one-and-a-half line spacing (as per business plan template)
· Page of references at the end of the report that is correctly formatted using APA.
Submission of the report:
· Online – Business plans are to be uploaded to Moodle as a Word or pdf document.
Review/Exam Week Monday (4 June 2018) 6:00 pm AEST
Exam Week Friday (15 June 2018)
The following criteria will be assessed, with a full allocation of marks available via the marking rubric on Moodle:
· Identification and description of business - clear identification and explanation of the tourism business, products and services
· Identification and critical analysis of external environment, including market demand, competitive environment (SWOT), and risk assessment
· Identification and critical analysis of marketing, management, operational (including HRM) and financial practices that demonstrate sustainability
· Content development - logical flow, clarity and consistency of business throughout document
· Style and conventions - formal and informal rules inherent in expectations for writing a business plan
· Syntax and mechanics - sentence construction, grammar, punctuation and spelling, references formatted in APA
- critically examine the economic impacts of tourism, across enterprise, industry and destination levels;
- describe and critique a range of theories and their application to the management of economically sustainable tourism businesses;
- review and evaluate current issues and future challenges in implementing economically sustainable tourism practices in tourism businesses;
- identify and critically analyse the linkages between economic sustainability and socio-cultural and environmental sustainability principles; and
- apply your knowledge of sustainable practice to research, develop and evaluate a sustainable tourism business plan.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
