The 2030 Agenda and the Hotel Industry: A Useful Roadmap or an Ill-Fitting Suit?
A critical look at implementing the UN 2030 Agenda in hospitality, examining the gap between Sustainable Development Goals and day-to-day hotel operations. From an industry insider’s perspective, it explores the limits, contradictions and practical challenges hoteliers face when turning SDGs into meaningful action.
Whenever I hear the 2030 Agenda discussed at hotel sustainability forums, there is something that always jars with me. Not its substance, which I share. Who would not want a fairer, more sustainable and more collaborative world? What concerns me is the way it is approached: the disconnect between what is proposed and what we can realistically do from a hotel that, like so many others, is working tirelessly to survive in hyper-saturated markets, shifting regulations and ever tighter margins.
The 2030 Agenda is not unrelated to the hotel industry. In fact, it directly refers to us in several of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), from responsible consumption and decent work to gender equality, climate action and innovation. So far, so good. But when we bring all of this into day-to-day operations, the question is unavoidable: how do we do it without becoming victims of our own good intentions?
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