Discussion
Instructors can use the curriculum module developed through the nominal group
decision making technique as described in this paper to integrate the principles of
sustainable development into human resource management classes. The integration of the
principles of sustainable development is critical because, as one of the world’s largest
industries, hospitality and tourism should actively contribute to implementing the
environmental and socio-cultural principles of sustainable development. Despite the
ambiguous definition and uncritical interpretation of sustainable development as
continued economic growth - only now with environmental constraints - the principles of
sustainable development provide an important agenda for local and global wellbeing.
Cognizant of the gap between implementation of the principles of sustainable
development in tourism and the existing literature on the subject, BEST’s module
curriculum development initiative aims to enhance existing hospitality and tourism
education programs by emphasizing the importance of sustainable tourism. The initiative
treats education on sustainability as a management philosophy rather than as a subject
matter. Hence, there is a need to integrate sustainability principles into courses so that
leaders of the hospitality and tourism industry are convinced that they should be applying
sustainable practices in their daily operations.