ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND SUSTAINABILITY: A SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ASSESSMENT OF LODGING MEDIA SET IN THE NORTH COAST OF PARAÍBA
Lodging Media, Sustainable Management, North Coast of Paraíba.
The northern coast of Paraíba is a great peculiarity place where are inserted distinguished historic, architectural, natural and ethnic aspects, somehow so well preserved. The region has eight protected areas where its efforts are divided between county, state and federal levels. The region is the territory of Potiguara ethnicity that has held since the days of colonization being the only indigenous people to remain in the same place since then in Brazil. With so many unique aspects the region results to receive either researchers or visitors seeking leisure. However, this search, fortunately, does not occur in an intense way. Thus, it is of utmost importance to develop a tourism plan which aims to the region sustainability. In this sense it is also necessary that the means of accommodation that fall within that context adopt methods that seek to mitigate their impact on the environment. Thus, it is important to know the limits and wishes of managers working with hosting in the region in the perspective of sustainable management. It is in this view that this research fits into seeking to observe these aspects, ie assess whether the north coast of Paraíba means of lodging internalize in its organizational culture the paradigm of management that for seeks a balance between the operation of the service and maintenance of nature. By revealing the social and environmental aspects of the hotel business this area we intend to better understand the burden and bonuses of this branch and contribute to the fulfillment of a sustainable touristic planning, ie, socially just, environmentally conscious and economically fair to the state of Paraiba. For this it was used the qualitative research method so that sought deepen the concerns of the managers of these enterprises to environmental management and environmental responsibility. For this it was used a script as a research tool of semi-structured interviews. The interviews were conducted with owners or managers responsible for planning and delivering services. The script was divided into three sessions: customer-related issues; environmental management practices and; environmental responsibility - enterprise profile. There were achieved 75% of all lodgings means, according to figures from the Associação Brasileira das indústrias de Hotéis (Brazilian Association of Hotels Industry) - ABIH/PB. However, the portion that volunteered to participate in the survey or that was operating during the period of the studies was 51% of the enterprises. It was observed that the means of lodgings of the northern coast of Paraiba do not internalize, at the core of its organizational structure the concept of sustainable management. However, respondents show respect and the desire of adequacy their practices to sustainable methods.