Introduction
China Highlights International Travel Service Co, Ltd. is an example of a Chinese tourist and hospitality company that pursues sustainability principles and reflects the global trend. The organization provides its clients with the unique experience of individual tours to different locations in China that are not popular enough among tourists. The alternative route for domestic tourism allows China Highlights to support local small businesses and the region’s community to preserve that place’s cultural heritage and save the environment. Emphasizing the importance of sustainability in describing the services China Highlights proposes to its customers is an opportunity for developing domestic tourism. The development of this opportunity will increase the popularity of China Highlights as the company that provides services in domestic tourism. Moreover, it will improve the quality of life and business activity in small towns or villages that are attractive from the tourism point of view. Therefore, the pursuit of sustainability principles and the manifestation of the support of local business, community, and culture is a positive trend in tourism and hospitality.
Glossary
- Domestic tourism: this notion refers to traveling inside the country.
- Globalization: it a trend towards making one international community that shares one culture.
- Sustainability: it is the preservation of the environment and local culture.
- Socio-cultural development: the notion refers to preservation of the region cultural heritage and development of the local community.
- Economic development: direct and indirect investment into the local small business.
- Environmental preservation: supporting the current state of the ecology or improving it.
- QSC: national organization that controls quality of tourist services.
- Epidemiological restrictions: restrictions, imposed by the government, on people to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
- Transportation opportunities: available ways of traveling to another place.
Achieving sustainable performance is one of the most critical goals that tourism and hospitality organizations try to gain. The Chinese tourist industry is not the exception, and it shares the goals set by the global hospitality discourse. As a result, the essential component of tourist organizations is the attempts to develop tourism in a sustainable manner that supposes giving opportunities for local business, preserving the environment and the regional cultural peculiarities.
Sustainability is one of the most significant issues in the global tourist trends. It is possible to define sustainable tourism as human awareness that all actions of modern people affect the world in the future, and it is critical to avoid adverse outcomes for the surrounding reality. It is possible to distinguish three main aspects of sustainability, including socio-cultural, economic, and environmental concerns (UNWTO, 2022). Optimizing work in these three aspects allows tourist organizations to achieve long-term sustainable development. Tourists and hospitality organizations should use ecological resources wisely regarding the region’s biodiversity and natural heritage.
Moreover, it is critical to understand that the local population should benefit from the tourist industry in the long-term perspective. The improvements are connected with the region’s economic and socio-cultural development and the surrounding nature’s preservation. For example, tourism development in the region should lead to alleviating poverty, developing small business initiatives of the local population, building hosting communities and facilities for sustainable tourism that do not spoil the environment (UNWTO, 2022). The preservation of the local culture is also essential in the sustainable development of tourist business. In other words, sustainable tourism supposes mutual satisfaction of tourists and the local population.
For the current paper, China Highlights International Travel Service Company was chosen as the example of an organization that works in the hospitality sphere successfully. It works on sustainability in developing its processes, communicating with customers, and pursuing the final goal of providing people with high-quality tourist services without harming the surrounding nature (Song, 2021). The critical detail is that this organization is Chinese and functions only in one country, which allows the company to focus on domestic tourism in minor details. The domestic presence of China Highlights International Travel Service Company determines its functioning and its attitude to the questions of sustainability. In general, sustainability is the global trend that allows tourism and hospitality organizations to find a balance between people’s experiences and the preservation of the environment. China Highlights International Travel Service Company allows its clients to discover the country with immense tourist attractions and opportunities without harming the surrounding ecosystem. It is possible to hypothesize that supporting and popularizing regional cultures by promoting original domestic trips is the sustainable opportunity that China Highlights can develop as their primary characteristic.
Background Information
China Highlights works on the Chinese tourist market and tries to reform this sphere according to sustainability principles, making China a part of the international tourist discourse. The company allows people to create the individual tour that is different from the most popular group tours that are often superficial and disregard the most exciting places in Chinese regions (Song, 2021). The tourist market in China is developing actively, and many popular destinations in the domestic market have heavy demand among people in the country. As a result, the Chinese tourist sphere must provide people with opportunities for sustainable traveling to these destinations that satisfy their needs.
China Highlights International Travel Service Company describes its mission and principles of its work in the following lines: “China Highlights is about “Discovery Your Way.” No groups, No flags, No fixed dates. You can see the parts of China that interest you most, on your dates, with your driver and guide. Unlike travel agencies and overseas tour operators that mostly just resell fixed tours, we work with you to create your very own unique trip. Every China Highlights trip is designed for your interests, with 1:1 help from your dedicated China specialist, every step of the way!” (Song, 2021, p. 1).
In other words, the company provides clients individualized services, which makes them different from most tourist agencies. Even though there are fixed trips on the organization’s website, the individual approach to the schedule and the destinations is critical. The descriptions of the most popular tours allow people to come up with general ideas about their desires connected with tourism in China.
The vital detail is that the organization has regional representatives responsible for implementing sustainability principles. For example, the regional representatives of China Highlights are accountable for hosting tourists in different places all over the country, providing them with food, shelter, drivers, etc. (Song, 2021). This initiative allows the organization to preserve the environment and help small businesses in local cities develop sustainably. Giving the opportunities for other people to participate in tourist services and supporting local business development are among the organization’s priorities in the sphere of sustainability.
Some national organizations and services control the quality of the services in the tourist industry. China’s outbound tourism quality service certification program (QSC program) is one of them, and China Highlights works with it. The organization has operated since 2013, and it aims at helping Chinese tourists to identify which service providers are the best for them (Song, 2021). There is the control of official authorities over the recommendations of the places that Chinese tourists can visit. The peculiar detail is that the China outbound tourism quality service certification program works internationally and on the domestic market, performing the same functions in both domains (Song, 2021). In general, the presence of national organizations that control the quality of the services provided to tourists allows for to structure of the industry. Those who travel abroad can find Chinese-friendly tourist attractions, shopping centers, travel agents, and hotels (Song, 2021). Those Chinese tourists who explore domestic attractions know that the places from the recommendations list of China’s outbound tourism quality service certification program guarantee them a satisfactory level of services.
Opportunity Description
Therefore, national tourist organizations control companies’ sustainability of companies, but there is a need to develop the company’s policy that follows this principle without supervision. China Highlights does not clearly define the company’s sustainable mission and does not emphasize this principle in describing its goals. At the same time, it pays adequate attention to the preservation of the environment, local culture, and local small business support (Song, 2021). It is possible to assume that the clear focus on sustainable development, especially in the preservation of local cultural peculiarities and supporting small business initiatives of the local population, might make the company’s work more effective and ideologically focused.
Even though organizations like the QSC program help China develop high-quality, sustainable tourism, it complicates the process of cooperation with the local business representatives. As a result, it is impossible to introduce the idea of a tourist destination that does not correspond to the requirements of the national committee. It restricts the opportunities for the active development of the tourist sphere and reduces the pace of making Chinese domestic tourism more sustainable because many aspects require coordination at the state level. Therefore, tourism remains high quality, but the improvement towards sustainability is comparatively slow.
This situation shows the existing problem with communication between national and local tourist agencies and difficulties in implementing the initiatives on the regional level. Local tourist companies need to show their active position concerning sustainable development without waiting for the program created on the national level (Song, 2021). For instance, elaborating the plan of sustainable action in the socio-cultural, environmental, and economic spheres by the representatives of China Highlights might become a positive initiative that will make the organization unique and valuable in the tourist market. The individual pursuit of the sustainable plan is the opportunity to popularize the services China Highlights presents.
At the same time, some practical issues are connected with achieving sustainable goals in the work of China Highlights. One of the most critical problems is the lack of influence of the company on the local government and representatives. The organization cannot change how local authorities organize the tourist sphere. Its members can only show clients local tourist attractions that are not usually present in the schedule of group tours other companies propose. Even though the organization’s initiatives are sustainable, they cannot be implemented in practice due to a lack of resources on the local level or a lack of desire of the regional officials and ordinary citizens to pursue sustainability principles (Hill & Hult, 2017). As a result, problems in the practical implementation of sustainable projects locally are fundamental challenges for China Highlights.
As mentioned, China Highlights cooperates with the QSC program, which affects its popularity. It influences the rating of the organization, and the practical results of its work make it popular among clients. Though, there are specific problems in the development of this cooperation. Integrating sustainable tourism and receiving all documents from the Chinese tourist organizations complicates the process. As a result, many destinations that might be interesting for Chinese travelers will not be represented in the official tourist recommendations.
Facilitation of official communication between the tourist organization and state agencies that control the quality of hospitality services is an opportunity that might improve the situation in the Chinese tourist industry. The lack of direct connection between different agencies is the problem because small businesses should receive accreditation from the state that guarantees high-quality services (Hill & Hult, 2017). Making this process less complicated for local small companies might lead to the improvement of economic sustainability of the Chinese regions and the subsequent development of the travel and hospitality sphere.
Literature Review
Globalization facilitated the ways of traveling and made this process more accessible for people worldwide. First, it is possible to use the technologies from different countries to improve the domestic tourist industry and its infrastructure. Second, globalization determines standards that all tourist agencies use to guide their development (Peng & Mayer, 2019). People understand that high-quality services are similar in all corners of the world, and their expectations concerning visiting tourist attractions increase (Peng & Mayer, 2019). Sustainability is one of the principles that spread globally in the tourist sphere, and it is supposed that all tourist agencies try to correspond to this standard while planning the tour.
Increased mobility of people is the primary characteristic of globalization. It is not difficult to change the place and communicate with people living in another part of the world. In general, the borders between countries do not allow people to travel, and mutual connections between countries become stronger (Risteska, 2020). Similar principles are applicable in domestic tourism because traveling from one region to another in a big country like China is a complicated process that is almost impossible without the developed infrastructure and technologies.
The peculiar detail is connected with the recent changes in globalization and tourism due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Transportation became complicated or almost impossible during the quarantine, and the tourist industry in China was “closed” for many months during the epidemics (Palacios-Florencio et al., 2021). The quarantines did influence not only the domestic tourist sphere but also foreign travelers who wanted to visit China. People require vaccination certificates and reasons to visit China, which reduces the number of foreign tourists in the country. In addition, the problematic epidemiological situation in the state leads to a severe decrease in people who travel to other regions in China (Peng & Mayer, 2019). All these aspects directly impacted the tourist sphere that had to adapt to the situation and ensure that their tours corresponded to the epidemiological requirements.
The pandemic of COVID-19 led to the development of sustainable tourism. People started to use the recommendations to avoid crowds and public places while choosing the destination for traveling. It is possible to illustrate this idea with the following lines from the article:
“The different governments on spaces for coexistence not because of a greater environmental awareness instilled in tourists, but because of the obligations impose this fact and, on the other hand, because of the new requirements in terms of security tourists will impose on themselves when traveling and choosing a destination. Once the confinement is finished, only internal tourism can be developed. This adaptation will help overcome old problems: the exclusivity of “sun and sand” tourism will be faced with the fear of crowds, so that the occupation of inland destinations will increase, revitalizing unpopulated areas.” (Palacios-Florencio et al., 2021, p. 996).
This excerpt shows that the tourist and hospitality areas adapt to external circumstances, and their flexible nature allows them to find the optimal strategy for business development. Sustainability corresponds to the needs of modern times because it will enable people to preserve their heritage and avoid epidemics and save lives, which are the priorities for all members of society.
Several critical drivers of globalization determine changes in the tourist sphere. They are competitive, technological, political, cost, and market drivers (Cooper & Hall, 2018). For instance, the development of the infrastructure in the country allows people to visit the most alienated regions where there were no tourist attractions before. The Chinese example and domestic tourism illustrate this statement vividly because the technological advancements allow the government to build roads and railroads and to make transportation to these places easy for people. Investments in the development of the tourist sphere are the example of the cost driver, and a satisfactory level of services provided to tourists is an example of adequate competition (Cooper & Hall, 2018). Therefore, these drivers can be discussed on tourism’s international and domestic levels because they determine the significant components critical in tourism and hospitality.
People often connect globalization and merging different cultures into one unified modern discourse. The researchers describe this issue in the following lines: “Social factors bring cultural convergence, that is, increasing similarity throughout
the world, through a significant reduction in transport and communication cost. Nowadays, the cost of transmitting information is almost negligible, shrinking the world to one market. Individuals and societies are taking advantage of this enormous reduction in cost by using standard brands and services worldwide. As a result, societies are moving towards convergence of taste, increasing homogeneity across the globe” (Naz, Ahmad, 2018, pp. 2134-145).
Globalization influences the destruction of local peculiarities because it imposes one stand on every country. From one point of view, it is a positive process because the standards of quality tourism improve, and people get better services in all corners of the world. From another point of view, this process is destructive for local tourism because it makes the regional cultural peculiarities insignificant.
Solution
Chinese Highlights cooperate with such national tourist agencies as the QSC program. It means that it works according to all national standards of quality, and the tours the company proposes to their clients are completely safe. The work with the official agencies and correspondence of the company’s services with the laws makes it a credible organization. Though, difficulties in accreditation of the small local business in the program make it a complicated process (Hill & Hult, 2017). The company becomes the agent between the local small business and the national agencies that control the quality of tourist services. As a result, it allows small businesses in the alienated regions to attract hosts, and Chinese Highlights receive the opportunity to create unique routes and trip schedules for their clients. This solution is balanced and works effectively, even though it is possible to improve this process and make accreditation easier.
As mentioned previously, globalization trends in tourism are characterized by the unification of local cultures that are substituted by the universal view of tourism. The example of domestic tourism in China shows that even local tourist attractions can be different, and every place in the country has its peculiarities. Most tourist agencies offer their clients standard tours, where the sites and the services are expected, which is the element of the globalization process in domestic tourism. China Highlights propose people individual tours to the destinations they find interesting. The vital detail is that China Highlights deliberately chose those places to stay and to visit that are disregarded by more “traditional” tourist companies. In other words, the organization emphasizes local peculiarities and makes attention to the regional character their main advantage in the tourist market.
Preferring small businesses in the alienated and small communities is an example of the economic sustainability of tourism. It is one of the most critical opportunities that Chinese Highlights should embrace and develop. It is a positive example for other tourist agencies and allows tourism to support the local economy, improving the lives of people in the region. As a result, the place will become more and more popular among tourists, increasing the level of life of those who live there. This mission correlates with the overall goal of developing the Chinese economy and, to boot, the population’s well-being in small cities and villages. It is especially relevant for the rural population and areas where tourism is not entirely developed.
The tendency to preserve the local culture is sustainable by its essence because it aims at the preservation of the regional character. Globalization can be considered a danger to local cultures and their unique character, even though sustainability is the global tourist trend. It shows that unification and the universality of everything are not always positive (Hill & Hult, 2017). When these principles are applied to the tourist industry, they can ruin the regional character of the place and impose a universal culture on it. It is possible to hypothesize that China Highlights successfully copes with the sustainability task in the cultural aspect, making it the distinctive feature of the organization.
The capitalistic market severely impacts the tourist industry, which leads to the need to make tourism cost-effective and competitive. China Highlights also works in competition, but it tries to balance being cost-effective and sustainable. The precise attention to every client’s local culture, regional peculiarities, and individual interests allows them to achieve positive results in this sphere (Hill & Hult, 2017). Promoting the well-being and development of the local community and helping the local small business survive are essential parts of a sustainable tourist company. China Highlights chooses those places to stay that are often disregarded by national Chinese tourist agencies, allowing the local population and businesses to develop their villages and small towns.
Critical Discussion
The drive towards sustainability generally influences the international tourism and hospitality industry positively. Sustainability is not only the formal corresponding of the tourist activity to rules of preservation of the environment and local culture. It leads to the increased satisfaction of clients from their tourist experience, and people are more likely to return to the tourist company that provides them with a sustainable experience (Naz & Ahmad, 2018). As a result, when the tourist company works according to the principles of sustainability, it helps the environment, the local economy, and the regional community, but at the same time, it increases its profit and popularity among people. These details allow us to assume that sustainability is among the critical components of international tourism affecting clients, the community, and the company.
It is also necessary to state that the international pursuit of sustainability principles allows domestic tourism to develop. The recent crisis in the tourist and hospitality sphere caused by the COVID-19 pandemic showed that the absence of frontiers for traveling to other countries is the illusion supported by the globalization agenda for years. People were used to the idea that they could travel wherever they chose, which became impossible. The following lines from the article illustrate this idea:
“According to the declarations made by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on its website, in April, 96% of worldwide destinations have implemented travel restrictions. Around 40 destinations are experiencing a partial border closure, while 90 destinations have closed their borders. An unforeseen and, for the time being, an unpredictable situation that urges survival measures for the sector” (Palacios-Florencio et al., 2021, p. 991).
In other words, globalization has been stable in recent decades, and most people could not imagine a different world. The pandemic became the turning point when countries started to close their borders to tourists and restrict their movements. The movement from globalization to the local, domestic and sustainable tourist corresponds to the requirements of modern times, which allows us to hypothesize that it will develop in the future.
The literature analysis on international tourism and sustainability shows that globalization has both advantages and disadvantages. From one point of view, the spread of ideas of globalization and global tourism increase the quality of services companies provide and popularize the sustainable development of business. From another point of view, sustainability is entirely different from the notion of globalization because it supposes precise attention to the local community, economy, and culture. In all cases, the sustainability trend is dominant in the contemporary tourist and hospitality discourse, and most companies try to pursue it.
Conclusion
Sustainable tourism should promote a thorough approach to management in this sphere and focus on all types of tourist activities. Sustainability principles are connected with tourism’s development in terms of socio-cultural, economic, and environmental aspects. In all cases, there is a vital need for the tourist industry to elaborate the holistic approach to guarantee that the projects are sustainable in the long-term perspective. The central aspect of developing environmentally sustainable tourism is the optimal use of the region’s resources. Respect for socio-cultural peculiarities is also critical in this process. Sustainable tourism should ensure that it reduces adverse conditions of life in the area, including poverty and the absence of places to host tourists.
In this paper, the work of China Highlights was discussed and analyzed. The investigation shows that the company works according to the principles of sustainability and aims to preserve the environment, economy, and socio-cultural heritage of Chinese regions. China Highlights does not articulate a sustainable direction in its corporate development even though its work corresponds to these principles. It is possible to assume that a clear focus on sustainability, especially on the need to develop local tourism and to support local culture in the alienated and rural areas of the country, might improve the policy of China Highlights. Even though China Highlights shows promising results in setting and achieving sustainable development goals, it does not provide its clients with the rationale why they should choose them. Sustainability is their difference from other rivals in the tourism and hospitality market, and the company must promote these ideas among clients. In all cases, it will enhance the business activity of local entrepreneurs from small cities and villages who understand that their services will be in demand. It might lead to the sustainable development of small local communities in Chinese regions, which is one of the sustainability priorities in hospitality and tourism.
The findings show that globalization is dangerous for preserving small local cultures and small businesses. The tendency of the globalized society is to destroy local cultures and create one dominant discourse, which leads to the impoverishment of the national heritage. The impact of globalization on the local culture is not always positive, which means that Chinese tourists and hospitality should find balance in adapting global practices and ideas. Sustainability is a positive global trend, and Chinese Highlights companies aim to pursue this principle. At the same time, disregarding the local heritage and peculiarities is the biased trend of globalization that Chinese travel agencies should consider with caution. Even though it contributes to improving tourist services and their stable high quality, it endangers the local culture and business.
Reference List
Cooper, C. and Hall, M. (2018) Contemporary tourism: An international approach. Goodfellow Publishers.
Hill, C. W. and Hult, T. M. (2017) International business: Competing in the global marketplace. McGraw Hill.
Naz, A., Ahmad, E. (2018) ‘Driving factors of globalization: An empirical analysis of the developed and developing countries’, Business & Economic Review, 10(1), pp. 133-158.
Palacios-Florencio, B. et al. (2021) Sustainable tourism as a driving force of the tourism industry in a post-Covid-19 scenario. Social Indicators Research, 158(3), pp. 991-1011.
Peng, M. W. and Meyer, K., 2019. International Business. South Western Cengage Learning.
Risteska, J. (2020) ‘The impact and effects of globalization on tourism development.’Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference “Social Changes in the Global World”, 1(3), 197-214.
Song, C. (2021) China Highlights. Chinahighlights.com.
UNWTO. (2022) Making tourism more sustainable – A guide for policy makers, UNEP and UNWTO. Committee on Tourism and Sustainability (CTS).