Barriers and drivers of sustainability: Corporate events in 5* hotels

Abstract

Corporate events have a massive impact on the event sector and are seen as a driving force for tourism, as a key element in the development of destination image. With the growing awareness of the impacts events have on the triple bottom line, sustainable development must be prioritized in this industry. This study aims to explore the barriers and drivers of sustainable corporate events in a Portuguese context, especially in 5-star hotels. The objectives are to define some main concepts of this field, such as sustainability in hospitality and tourism, corporate events, and ESG Management. And also instigates the barriers and drivers found and compares them to the ones found in previous literature, concluding with some recommendations for more sustainable practices. This study collected qualitative primary data by means of in-depth interviews with corporate event managers mainly in managerial positions. The transcripts of the interviews were analyzed with context analysis methods. The results revealed that the main drivers are sustainable practices, digital communication, the use of new technologies, CSR policies, SGDs, and attendees preferences. The main barriers found in this study are financial resources, lack of sustainable practices, high staff turnover, and lack of government support. This study contributes to both theoretical and practical scopes by identifying the need to introduce new topics to event frameworks and adopt these through the application of standards and guidelines.