Corporate social responsibility in the hotel industry

"I've been working in teaching for over seven years," she explains: "I've founded or built up several companies in the leisure industry (fitness & wellness) and hotel industry and established the educational campus of the Hamburg Distance Learning University in Vienna." She has been involved in tourism and the leisure industry for a long time. In her doctoral thesis, she focussed on the exciting topic of business ethics and CSR - corporate social responsibility in tourism. "I investigated the extent to which the 'Living Lab' innovation method, which we are largely familiar with from the IT industry, can contribute to CSR innovations and improvements in tourism, especially in the hotel industry," she explains. Her conclusion:

Living Labs are very well suited to the involvement of all stakeholders, to the application of various creativity methods and bring higher measurable CSR results; therefore they are very well suited for the hotel industry.

Using an extensive anonymous survey of the top international hotel industry, she analysed how the sector deals with the issue of corporate responsibility for its own business, the environment and society.

Kadriye Cigir's research work was supervised by the Dean of the Tourism & Economy Faculty at the University of Pula, one of ten international university partners of Burgenland University of Applied Sciences as part of the PhD programmes. The time spent studying part-time was a great challenge for the dynamic career woman - she works as Head Of Strategic Development at PTW & Partner GmbH.

In the meantime, the hotel industry (TUI Hotels) has also shown interest in her work. In one hotel, the 'Living Lab' was successfully implemented as a case study with Ms Cigir for a sustainability goal.