Is certification for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO 9000 certification? The case of the Parque del Lago Hotel in Costa Rica

              www.pasosonline.org
Vol. 9 Nº 4 págs. 543-557. 2011
Is certifi cation for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO
9000 certifi cation? The case of the Parque del
Lago Hotel in Costa Rica
Kattia Vasconcelos-Vasquez i
National University of Costa Rica (Costa Rica)
Francisco Balbastre-Benavent ii
Ana Maria Redondo-Cano iii
University of Valencia (España)
i Associate Professor. National University of Costa Rica. E-mail: kvascon@una.ac.cr
ii Associate Professor. Department of Business Administration. University of Valencia (Spain). E-mail: Francis-co.
Balbastre@uv.es
iii Associate Professor. Department of Business Administration. University of Valencia (Spain). E-mail: Ana.
Redondo@uv.es
Resumen: El valor de este trabajo radica en el hecho de que proporciona un análisis comparativo
entre las normas ISO 9000:2000 y las normas de sostenibilidad de Costa Rica CST. Su objetivo es
obtener las diferencias y similitudes entre ambos sistemas de certifi cación, a partir de su compara-ción
y del análisis de su contribución a la gestión empresarial y la sostenibilidad. El análisis destaca
que los deben realizarse cambios organizativos en la empresa para lograr la efi ciencia y garantizar
la satisfacción del cliente.
Palabras clave: Turismo sostenible; Certifi cación turística; Certifi cación de calidad; Estudio de
caso.
Título: ¿Es la certifi cación de turismo sostenible complementaria a la norma ISo 9000? El caso del
Hotel parque del Lago en Costa Rica.
Abstract: The value of this paper lies in the fact that it provides a comparative analysis between ISO
9000:2000 standards and the Costa Rica CST sustainability standard. It aims to obtain differences
and similarities between both certifi cation systems from this comparison and to analyze how they
contribute to business management and sustainability. The analysis highlights which organizational
changes a company must develop in order to achieve effi ciency and ensure customer satisfaction.
Keywords: Sustainable tourism; Tourism certifi cation; Quality certifi cation; Case study
© PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural. ISSN 1695-7121
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PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 9(4). 2011
Is certifi cation for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO 9000 certifi cation? ...
ISSN 1695-7121
Introduction
The critical situation of nature and the ecological
and social crisis all over the world has increased public
awareness of respect for the environment. As a conse-quence,
the last few years have shown a rapid increase
in ecotourism1 (Hassan, 2000). This naturalist approach
to tourism has meant a change in the habits and ex-pectations
of tourists all over the world (Honey, 1999),
which have evolved into a different kind of tourism in
which tourists take a more active role and are more in-volved
with the environmental and cultural interests of
tourist destinations. People thus demand higher quality
services which protect the environment and preserve lo-cal
cultures yet also enable them to enjoy their leisure
time at the same time (Honey, 1999).
Ecotourism is the specialized segment of responsi-ble
tourism which encourages nature conservation and
respect for the cultural values of the different destina-tions.
Ecotourism favors the social and economic impro-vement
of diverse local communities and tries to create
awareness about the local problems and satisfy custo-mers
ethically. This means designing activities based
around the environment and facilitating direct contact
with nature and local culture.
Costa Rica was a pioneer in this kind of tourism and
became one of the world’s main “green” destinations,
as we can observe in literature: “Costa Rica has esta-blished
a reputation as an ecological paradise (Napier,
1997, WEF, 2007). “The country boasts breath-taking
natural beauty and national parks teeming with wildli-fe”
(Napier, 1997). “Costa Rica is one of the world’s most
biodiverse countries and, with more than dozen parks
and other protected areas, has preserved more than
10% of the country’s primary forests. The country has
also experienced rapid growth in international tourism
arrivals due in large part to these national parks” (Lin-dberg
and Aylward, 1999). “An emblem of Costa Rica
tourism, the country’s level of environmental sustaina-bility
earned it 27th place in the world” (Garnica, 2009).
28% of the territory is protected (WEF: 2008, Bien,
2000) and has become a potential place to visit for the
ecotourism segment. Moreover, private initiatives are
being adopted to protect other forests in the country,
in an attempt to make this tourist advantage stronger
and enable Costa Rica to compete as an international
ecological destination.
Costa Rica was ranked in 44th place (WEF, 2008)
in the World Economic Forum’s tourist competitiveness
assessment. The determining factors of the ranking are
nature and cultural resources together with human re-source
factors. Also, Costa Rica (Coco Island) is ranked
as the number one destination for biodiversity research
(ICT: 2008) and number two as an ecotourism destina-tion
for NAT GEO (Bien, 2006; ICT, 2008). And ICT data
(2008) shows that the main reasons for visiting Costa
Rica (90%) are directly related to nature. Bearing in
mind these considerations it can be thought that hotels
in Costa Rica have interest in adapting their systems
and facilities to cater for this profi le of potential tourist.
Moreover, tourism is vital for Costa Rica as it repre-sents
the main source of income, over and above the co-ffee,
banana, pineapple and pharmaceutical industries.
According to Porter (1996: 36) Costa Rica’s tourist in-dustry
is based on three elements: a) the country and
region’s position, b) ecological diversity and unique en-vironmental
resources, c) agricultural and forest poten-tial
all year round. To this respect Molina and Chaves
(2004) add that the competitive advantage that Costa
Rica has got in ecotourism is based on local, national
and transnational companies; local, foreign and interna-tional
non-profi t organizations; national research cen-ters
and other public organizations.
From a worldwide perspective, the tourist sector is
highly competitive and globalization increases compe-titiveness.
In this context, the development of quality
management systems becomes a potential source of
competitive advantage for fi rms competing in this in-dustry
(Escrig et al., 2001; Flynn et al., 1995), though
Dale (2007: 303) establishes that a company does not
achieve superior performance merely by quality mana-gement
certifi cation as the latter becomes a pre-compe-titive
issue and separate from the ability to compete,
which depends on many other factors.
In the early stages of the use of quality in the tou-rist
sector, and especially in the case of hotels, mea-sures
concentrated on assessing the physical facilities
(comfort, cleanliness, number of rooms, etc.) which de-termined
the number of stars. Subsequently, different
service-related aspects have been added to evaluation
methods and tools. To this respect, outstanding have
been the contributions of Parasuraman et al. (1988,
1991, 1993 and 1994) with the creation and refi nement
of the SERVQUAL method. The consideration of both
tangible and intangible aspects of service quality is to-day
the fundamental base for measuring hotel quality.
As has been the case in other sectors, hotels have
been infl uenced by the use of ISO 9001 & ISO 14001
standards (Bien, 2000; Padrón and Espino, 2007). One
of the main advantages of ISO standards is that they
are respected internationally and potential customers
recognize the importance of having ISO certifi cation.
However, ISO standards do not include sustainability
issues which are highly relevant in countries oriented
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K. Vasconcelos-Vasquez; F. Balbastre-Benavent y A.M. Redondo-Cano
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545
to ecotourism, such as Costa Rica (Bien, 2008). Simi-larly,
although there is a technical ISO committee on
tourism (TC 228) there is no ISO standard on sustai-nable
tourism and there is little likelihood that an ISO
standard with those characteristics will be developed
(Bien, 2008: 15).
Costa Rica, as a leader in sustainable tourism, has
used a good strategy to promote its advantages inter-nationally.
The government has helped the process by
designing and encouraging specifi c policies and inter-national
agreements on sustainable development (Bien,
2008). In this respect, the Costa Rica Tourism Institute
(ICT) proposed the program for Certifi cation for Sus-tainable
Tourism, “CST”. This certifi cation has been
accepted by the World Organization for Tourism, as a
program that is modifying the way tourism is conducted
(Bien, 2000: 3; Rivera, 2002; Monge, 2003; 6). Although
CST has been created for the whole tourist sector, ho-tels
have been the fi rst group to use it (Monge, 2003).
CST is being extensively developed as short-term
results show. In addition, the Inter-American Develo-pment
Bank asks interested fi rms to pass the evalua-tion
process in order to offer help to new tourist projects
(with emphasis on sustainable tourist projects).
The “CST” brand represents fulfi lling tourist ex-pectations
regarding sustainable tourism (Molina and
Chaves 2004; Bien, 2008) and infl uences demand con-siderably,
as tourists prefer to go to hotels which have
CST. Consequently, certifi ed fi rms will achieve com-petitive
advantages and higher levels of profi tability
(Rovinsky, 2007: 24). To a certain extent, the interna-tional
market demands certifi cation; if the fi rm has it,
certifi cation will turn into a real source of competitive
advantage based on the international image of Costa
Rica with respect to the environment (Honey and Bien,
2005).
Given the relevance of standards for hotels, the pre-sent
paper tries to compare the certifi cation for sustai-nable
tourism (CST) given by the Costa Rica Tourism
Institute (ICT) and ISO 9001:2000 certifi cations to
check how they compliment each other with the aim of
analyzing how the combined use of both certifi cations
can improve managerial practices and sustainability.
The analysis was carried out on the Parque del Lago
Hotel (PLH), the fi rst hotel in Costa Rica to obtain both
certifi cations.
The work is structured into an introduction, a subse-quent
section which includes the main aspects included
in ISO and CST standards. A third section, which com-pares
the analysis of both certifi cations, a fourth section
describing the methodological aspects, and a fi fth sec-tion
which includes results from the case analysis. Fi-nally,
the main conclusions and references are set out.
The ISO 9000 standards: a brief description
The ISO standard is an international regulation
which is said to be the world’s number one standard. It
“is gradually being adopted by hospitality companies”
(Claver et al, 2006). ISO certifi cation shows a clear cus-tomer
orientation and an interest in internal effi ciency
(Casadesús and Karapetrovic, 2005). Accordingly, when
a fi rm tries to certify its quality system under ISO stan-dards
it aims to achieve two important results: increa-sed
productivity and external recognition (Salleh and
Wee-Keat, 2001).
Increases in productivity are obtained thanks to
better documentation of procedures, more knowledge
of quality issues, better communication strategies and
a positive cultural change. These changes cause an
increase in effi ciency and operational productivity as
costs are reduced. The objective is to develop “a docu-mented
Quality Management System, and not a system
of documents” ISO/TC 176. Additionally, the required
formalization contributes to making different work ins-tructions
clear, to improving internal communication
and favoring employees’ commitment and motivation
(as they participate in the improvement of the different
processes) (Nield and Metin, 1999; Chow-Chua et. al.,
2003).
At an external level, the ISO standard enables the
fi rm to look for new market opportunities. The quality
image of the fi rm improves, and as a result so does the
degree of customer satisfaction. Consequently, the fi rm
will increase its participation in the market thanks to
the competitive advantage that certifi cation offers (Ca-sadesús
and Karapetrovic, 2005; Chow-Chua, et al.,
2003; Santos et al., 2002). Firms will also be able to
take further advantage and increase profi ts if they defi -
ne clear objectives, involve all the employees and obtain
the commitment of the organization as a whole (Naveh,
et al., 2004).
Most studies “suggest that ISO certifi cation should
help a company improve operations, strengthen mar-keting
and boost staff morale” (Nield and Kozak, 1999;
Wong, 1998; Claver et al., 2006). Claver et al. (2009) as-sure
that quality certifi cations in hotels is an important
strategic option “because they may facilitate the deve-lopment
of key factors and may have an impact on the
fi rm’s performance”. The authors propose the need for
more research to investigate the relationship between
certifi cation and performance (Claver et al., 2009), gi-ven
the scarce literature on the subject.
To implement the ISO 9000 standard employees
must be specifi cally trained; the fi rm has to defi ne its
document structure and the organization’s characteris-
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Is certifi cation for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO 9000 certifi cation? ...
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tics in order to focus on customer requirements (Ho et
al., 1995; Walker and Salameh, 1996; Sheldon, 2003).
However, the implementation of the standard can be
perceived as costly (in time and invested resources),
bureaucratic and with a limited margin for employee
participation.
Implementation and certifi cation of a Quality Ma-nagement
System based on the ISO 9001 standard has
organizational implications; namely, changes in wor-king
methods, procedure control and the management
of non-conformities, affecting what, who, how and why
(Schenkel, 2004; Moreno et al., 2001).
Table 1 summarizes different research on ISO stan-dards.
As we can observe, and as a result of certifi cation,
some organizations have improved their position in the
market and have increased productivity; but others
have not obtained satisfactory results, perceiving the
process as time-consuming, expensive and bureaucratic
(Brown, 1993).
These results suggest that is not the standard but
the way of managing the process and the market seg-ment
the fi rm operates in which are the key factors in
the process. A proper structure based on internal and
external customer requirements, and strategic agree-ments
with suppliers are the key factors for successful
management (without certifi cations that support this
way of managing) (Ruzevicius et al., 2004: 9). Conse-quently,
hotels that want to be ISO 9000 certifi ed need
to establish equilibrium between achieving quality and
the efforts required to obtain certifi cation; and may also
adapt the process to their own characteristics and to the
type of service offered (Gavin et al., 2001).
The Costa Rica Certifi cation for Sustainable Tou-rism
(CST): a brief description
The main goal of CST is to convert the concept of sus-tainability
into something real, practical and necessary
Table 1.- Research on the results of implementing the ISO 9001 standard. Sou-rce:
Adapted from Jason et. al. (2005)
for tourism to be competitive in Costa Rica.
As a consequence, the way of using natural
and social resources, active participation
of local communities and fi rms’ competiti-veness
will improve (ICT: 2008; Honey and
Bien, 2008).
CST is a tool for tourism fi rms as it
generates an increase in the demand for
more sustainable tourism that preserves
natural resources.
CST guarantees the homogeneity and
quality of products and services, allowing
the customer to observe the existing diffe-rences
between diverse fi rms in the sector
(Solano, 2007: 25; Honey and Bien, 2005).
Simultaneously, CST encourages a model
for sustainability that enables an improve-ment
in quality through the participation
of the different sectors involved. This pro-cess
gives the model institutional support,
credibility and reliability (Solano et al.
2003: 27).
CST has international prestige and
constitutes a differentiating element for
the fi rms that have it. Certifi cation assu-res
that the fi rm has an internal quality
management system (Honey and Bien,
2005:2). Nowadays, CST forms part of the
ISTC (International Sustainable Tourism
Commission), under the supervision of
the OMT (Honey and Bien, 2005; Rivera,
2002). Both organizations (ISTC, OMT)
are promoting CST to become an offi cial
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external customers. Internal customers are also consi-dered
and communication and group management are
assessed. Finally, the socio-economic environment is as-sessed.
This is linked to economic benefi ts, local culture,
health services, the creation of employment and worker
training. At this stage, management is more creative
and innovative.
Certifi cation is shown as a stamp in the shape of a
leaf with a human face. This stamp has created a posi-tive
impact on visitors, as it reinforces the human facet
of the management of natural resources. As shown abo-ve
in the case of the ISO analysis, table 2 presents the
main advantages and disadvantages of CST.
CST provides diverse benefi ts for the fi rm (see table
3). It facilitates international promotion, participation
in international conferences, etc. (Bien, 2007). Another
relevant aspect is that CST has no additional costs for
the hotels that apply for it (Rivera, 2002; Bien, 2008).
CST facilitates cost reductions using environmentally
friendly technologies and processes, which contribute to
enhancing the “green destination” reputation (Rivera,
2002; Bien, 2000).
This certifi cation is also useful in the fi rm’s admi-nistrative,
environmental and service management. It
ISO standard (Bien, 2000).
There are 84 certifi ed hotels in Costa Rica and
another 16 fi rms linked to the country’s tourist sector.
It is being used in Central America and South America,
and has been adapted to the specifi city of every envi-ronment
and country. This is precisely one of its most
important virtues as the organizations are in the same
continent but their needs are different and the stan-dard
is able to consider these differences (Monge, 2003).
Countries like Belize, Brazil, Peru and others are im-plementing
CST certifi cation (ICT: 2009).
To obtain CST, the organization must be assessed in
four areas (Solano et al., 2003: 26): the physical-biologi-cal
environment, service facilities, service management,
and the external customer and socio-economic environ-ment.
Different criteria are assessed in the fi rst area
(physical-biological environment), namely the fi rm’s
internal organization or the policies in favor of the na-tural
environment where the fi rm is located. Service
facilities are assessed from environmental, social and
political perspectives. The CEO must put the empha-sis
on the adoption of managerial practices oriented to
and respectful with the environment. Different commu-nication
and participation strategies are developed for
Table 2.- Advantages and Disadvantages of CST in Costa Rica, Central America. Source: Monge (2003: 23)
Table 3.- Benefi ts of CST for involved agents. Source: Solano et al. (2003: 30)
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is compatible with different fi rms and with different
certifi cations, such as ISO 14000 (environmental cer-tifi
cation), SERVQUAL (customer service), ISO 9001
(management) and “green stamps” (Bien, 2000). CST is
a good complement for other certifi cations, such as ISO
9000, as it enriches the standard and contributes to the
development of sustainable tourism.
The process of CST implementation and certifi cation
is organized into four stages (Barrantes and Castro,
2009: 8). Firstly, the hotel is pre-diagnosed across the
board in administrative, fi nancial, marketing, operatio-nal
and other areas. When data is obtained it is verifi ed
“in situ”. At this stage, the fi rm develops an implemen-tation
plan and decides how to accomplish every item of
the standard. At this point, the data refl ects the reality
of the hotel and can be compared with CST requisites.
In the third stage, changes in policies and manuals are
brought about to guarantee compliance with the stan-dard.
The fourth step implements the action plan with
the relevant corrective measures and fi nally, the fi rm is
assessed again. When the hotel thinks that it can pass
the evaluation, it registers offi cially and receives the
assessment team. This procedure is very similar to the
ISO implementation process, but much simpler.
CST affects the organizational structure directly.
CST certifi cation considers vital aspects of the organi-zation,
such as:
• Training for all organizational members.
• Events organization with the community. This opens
the doors of the organization to its immediate envi-ronment.
• Workplaces are structured according to processes, so
the profi les of the workplaces are different.
• Worker involvement is very important as this ensu-res
the established plans are complied with.
• Suppliers must share a vision and mission which is
related to customer satisfaction and time deadlines.
• The facility layout varies because it must be correla-ted
to the biological environment.
After this defi nition of the basic characteristics of
ISO and CST certifi cations, we can make a comparative
analysis of their characteristics, focusing on their orga-nizational
implications and on their main differences,
which will enable us to analyze how they complement
each other.
Implementation and certifi cation of ISO 9001:2000
and CST standards: a comparative analysis
The comparative analysis of both certifi cations will
enable us to analyze their degree of compatibility or
complementariness from a theoretical viewpoint. We
will focus on principles, processes (implementation and
certifi cation) and organizational implications.
With respect to principles, the ISO 9001:2000 stan-dard
has an explicit doctrine whilst CST has philosophi-cal
principles that respond to its essence, sustainability
(Monge, 2003). Nevertheless, explicit and implicit prin-ciples
are compatible, as all these principles have simi-lar
orientations. Consequently, in this area we cannot
observe signifi cant differences between both standards.
We fi nd highly similar stages in the processes of im-plementation
and certifi cation. The fi rst stage is diag-nosis;
the second is named differently in each of the
standards but the content is similar (designing action
plans and defi ning manuals, for quality in the case of
ISO standard or to protect the environment in the case
of CST). However, the third stage is different as docu-mentation
is the most important factor in this phase in
the ISO standard yet CST does not require documents,
or it is not essential to physically have these documents.
CST requires an assessment of the fi rm’s internal
and external opportunities, including suppliers and
their strategic alternatives. CST includes waste mana-gement
and the fi rm’s social responsibility. This kind
of processes are not present in the ISO standard, thus
at this particular stage we can state that CST comple-ments
the ISO standard. CST goes beyond the fi rm’s
administrative management by focusing on the natural
and cultural environment, internal and external custo-mers,
suppliers, neighborhood, community, other fi rms
and the government (Bien, 2007).
CST makes the results of its audits public, but in the
case of the ISO standard, results are private and are
extremely costly. The main point of confrontation comes
from documentary requirements but there are technolo-gies
and means to harmonize both standards.
Finally, with respect to organizational implications
the comparative analysis shows that there are organiza-tional
changes and modifi cations in Human Resources
(HR) policies (table 4).
CST is accepted, valued and recognized by tourists
who have the same mindset as the sustainability phi-losophy.
This is why CST is more useful to the hotel
industry oriented towards green tourism than the ISO
9001 standard (Bien, 2007: 35).
Finally, each standard has different advantages, as
we have shown before. Consequently, organizations and
particularly hotels have to analyze which certifi cation
is best suited to its strategy and market, and must look
into how both standards can complement each other.
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549
Research methodology
This section contains the description of the methodo-logy
used in our empirical research. As this work analy-zes
organizational processes, it is fundamental to deve-lop
the analysis in the same context the process takes
place in. Consequently, we have adopted a qualitative
research methodology, in line with the objective of this
research (Bernal, 2006; Bryman, 1988; Eriksson and
Kovalainen, 2008; Cepeda, 2006; Chetty, 1996; Hartley,
1994; Pérez Aguiar, 1999; Saunders et al., 2003; Stake,
1995; Yin, 1981, 1989, 1993 and 1999). We decided
to use the case study method (Yin, 1989 and 1993) to
analyze and compare how the PLH implemented and
certifi ed a quality management system based on the
ISO 9001:2000 standard and a sustainability-oriented
management system based on the CST standard. From
this comparison, we obtained differences and similari-ties
between both certifi cations, and were able to see
how they helped organizational activity.
Two relevant aspects must be taken into account
when using case study methodology: the number of ca-ses
and the selection criteria (Céspedes and Sánchez,
1996; Eriksson and Kovalainen, 2008; Pérez Aguiar,
1999; Yin, 1989). With respect to the fi rst question, we
chose one case, as this enabled more in depth research.
Regarding the second question, the case of the PLH was
chosen for two basic reasons; because it was the fi rst
hotel in Costa Rica to obtain both certifi cations and be-cause
it is an important organization which is conside-red
as a management model for other fi rms; secondly,
we had access to the organization and its staff, which
enabled us to obtain large amounts of information.
We interviewed people who were directly involved in
the certifi cation processes. We interviewed the hotel’s
owner, the former human resources and quality mana-ger,
the person in charge of customer service and the
consultant who participated in the certifi cation process.
All of them were semi-structured in depth interviews.
The interviews were recorded and lasted for a total of
fi ve and a half hours. Moreover, a wide variety of docu-ments
was checked to triangulate with the obtained in-formation
(organizational chart, job descriptions, com-pany
references on the internet, internal publications,
quality manuals and previous CST studies, among
others).
Case study: application and certifi cation of the
ISO 9001:2000 and CST standards in the Parque
del Lago Hotel
The context
The PLH is near Sabana Park, 2 km from the centre
of San José. Its proximity to the international airport of
Juan Santamaría (16km), makes it the perfect place for
both business travelers and leisure tourists.
In 1999, the hotel joined the Barceló hotel chain. It is
a four star, four leaves hotel (in sustainability tourism)
and it is oriented to businessmen and fi rst class tourists.
The hotel has 30 rooms and 10 suites, and offers a broad
set of services. Since October 2004 it has been under
the management of Cayuga “Sustainable Hospitality”,
a fi rm dedicated to the management and development
of lodges, hotels and other projects related to sustaina-ble
and ecological tourism in Central America and the
Caribbean. Since then, management has been oriented
towards process management and workers have parti-cipated
in the continuous improvement strategy. The
main leitmotiv of the company is “act in harmony with
nature”.
According to the documents and information collec-ted
from the company, the mission of the hotel is “to ex-ceed
the expectations of all our customers through the
development of hotel services in a framework of quality
and sustainability”. Its vision says, “We want to become
the leading hotel in Central Valley, offering our custo-mers
the best location, new infrastructure, effi cient ser-vice,
excellent value for money and a strong orientation
to environmental, cultural and economic sustainabili-ty”.
The occupation levels of the hotel are 100% in high
season and 70% in low season. This data show that the
Table 4.- Organizational implications for implementing ISO & CST standards
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Is certifi cation for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO 9000 certifi cation? ...
ISSN 1695-7121
ved the hotel’s performance.
The fi rst steps towards quality management were
taken explicitly with the management of Cayuga Sus-tainable
Hospitality, S.A, taking quality as the develo-pment
of hotel services whilst respecting the principles
of sustainable tourism. This concept covers both the
administrative and operational departments of the or-ganization.
ISO and CST certifi cations at the PLH
CST: Costa Rica is an ecotourism destination and
the present strategy of the PLH and its management
(Cayuga, S.A.) is in line with sustainability. Conse-quently,
when the ICT invited hotels to acquire sustai-nable
tourism certifi cation, the hotel managers decided
to initiate the process, as certifi cation was congruent
with the fi rm’s philosophy and strategy. The develop-ment
of the process was as follows: the pre-diagnosis
was carried out using the proper tools (facilitated by the
Consejo Nacional de Acreditación) with the assistance
of Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality S.A.’s consultants.
The reasons for trying to obtain CST were to satisfy
the requirements of the present and future “ecotourism”
market; and the fi rm’s corporate social responsibility.
ISO: The hotel also put in for ISO certifi cation to ob-tain
different goals, namely: to assure the quality of the
product and services offered; to assure the fi rm’s mana-gement
that the desired level of quality was obtained,
and to establish the guidelines for the use of standards
PLH is very effi cient, obtaining increasing annual sales
and revenues of $850,000.00 per year.
PLH: quality and sustainability policy
In 2007, the PLH obtained the Certifi cation for Sus-tainable
Tourism (CST), with four leaves. In 2008, it
also obtained certifi cation (three leaves in this case). Its
present objective is to obtain level 5 of this certifi cation.
In February 2008, the hotel obtained ISO 9001:2000
certifi cation. This certifi cate does not mention the stren-gths
and weaknesses of the fi rm, and is different to CST
in this respect which does include them.
For the interviewed people, the application of the
ISO standard enables the fi rm to study and think about
the best way to develop an activity and obtain a goal.
Consequently, what is decided by everyone is written
down, and then carried out.
Manuals and process defi nition are necessary to
understand and study the task. What distinguishes a
quality system is the simultaneous consideration of the
activity and the person that carries it out. The quality
philosophy of the PLH is focused on ecotourism.
According to its mission and vision, the PLH is fo-cused
on its customers, as can be seen in fi gure 1. Its
customer orientation and the associated organizational
structure existed before it obtained the certifi cations;
and it has not undergone serious changes since then.
It must be pointed out that the new management of the
hotel (Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality, S.A.) has impro-
Figure 1.- Organizational chart of the PLH
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K. Vasconcelos-Vasquez; F. Balbastre-Benavent y A.M. Redondo-Cano
ISSN 1695-7121
551
certifi cation. For example, quality policies, quality ma-nuals
and documents oriented to continuous improve-ment.
The hotel signed a contract with a consultancy fi rm,
Norts Consulting, S.A., to facilitate the ISO implemen-tation
process. Equally, Cayuga Sustainable Hospitali-ty,
S.A. helped the process from an economic and tech-nical
viewpoint (table 5).
CST fi ts in perfectly with the profi le of the assessing
fi rm (Cayuga Sustainable Hospitality, S.A.) of the PLH,
which is vital for the hotel. As the former human re-sources
and quality manager stated, “the hotel had pre-viously
worked with strategic plans, and was customer
service sustainability-oriented”.
Table 6 shows the main changes derived from both
CST and ISO certifi cations.
As we can observe in table 6, the changes generated
in the organization.
In this particular case, the desire of one of the hotel’s
owners was to be the fi rst ISO-certifi ed hotel in Cos-ta
Rica and in Central America. This was actually the
main reason behind obtaining this certifi cation as this
would give the hotel an international reputation and
would also be a good basis for differentiation in the com-petitive
arena.
As we mentioned before, CST certifi cation was ob-tained
previously to the ISO standard. The process for
obtaining CST lasted less than a year, and after fi ve
months they obtained the ISO 9001:2000 certifi cate.
This fact may imply that the guidelines used in CST
certifi cation and its dynamics favors the attainment of
other certifi cates, such as ISO 9001. In this respect, the
people interviewed declared that many of the elements
considered in CST were used again for ISO 9001:2000
Table 5.- Implementation of ISO 9001:2000 and CST: some important aspects
Table 6.- Some organizational changes after implementing ISO 9001:2000 and CST
552
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Is certifi cation for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO 9000 certifi cation? ...
ISSN 1695-7121
by both certifi cations may be considered complemen-tary
since they have contributed to improving the per-formance
of the hotel in different areas. For example,
human resource training and lifelong learning has be-come
a constant and regular practice. Process manage-ment
has also obviously improved. But what has clearly
improved are the aspects related to the environment
and nature.
ISO 9001:2000 certifi cation has facilitated the achie-vement
of real improvements at an internal level (as
process management has improved) and CST has had
a clear infl uence at the external level, with positive re-sults
on the local community and beyond. This guaran-tees
that the hotel respects and is fully integrated with
natural paradises. The former HR manager declared
that a “mix” between both certifi cations was feasible
and perfect for the hotel.
Another important topic in this research is the study
of the role of CST as a facilitator for ISO 9001 certifi -
cation. The following table shows the different aspects
that facilitated the certifi cation of the quality manage-ment
system.
tive effects for the fi rm, such as people responsible for
implementing different processes leaving the organiza-tion.
But these situations were an exception.
The following table shows the main obstacles that
emerged during the process to achieve both certifi ca-tions
(table 8).
With respect to CST and ISO certifi cation processes,
one of the problems was related to the need to print
some specifi c documents. CST insists on printing only
what is strictly necessary. On the other hand, ISO re-quires
the printing of some documents which are asso-ciated
with the operational part of the hotel service. Fi-nally,
the PLH contacted a software company (with the
help of the INA) to develop an intranet to reduce the use
of paper as much as possible. Training was organized by
the INA which carries out this kind of initiatives in Cos-ta
Rica (INA: 2001). As a conclusion, CST requirements
have contributed to the enrichment of ISO certifi cation,
and this fact shows the complementary nature of both
certifi cations.
Concerning the results of both certifi cations, table 9
synthesizes them.
Table 7.- Aspects that facilitated the certifi cation of the quality management system
Table 8.- Main obstacles for certifi cations in the PLH
In short, the experience of implementing the previous
certifi cation facilitated the second certifi cation process;
it must be added that human resources have already
been trained; they already had the required technology,
material and fi nancial resources and a very positive and
participative attitude. However, there were also nega-
As we can observe in ta-ble
9, CST obtains results
in different situations; it
enables sustainable deve-lopment
of administrative
and operational hotel pro-cesses
and permits process
documentation which has
a low impact on the envi-ronment,
community, hotel
workers and their families.
From a fi nancial point of
view, the hotel has invested
resources to become cultu-rally,
socially and environ-mentally
friendly. However,
the managers interviewed
think that the hotel will re-cover
the invested money,
as customers are satisfi ed
with results, as customer
satisfaction questionnaires
show.
Certifi cations have beco-me
a marketing tool. When the customer consults the
hotel webpage, they can see the certifi cation. The hotel
also receives positive service quality assessments from
their customers. Consequently, the level of loyalty is in-creasing.
With respect to certifi cation results at an internal
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 9(4). 2011
K. Vasconcelos-Vasquez; F. Balbastre-Benavent y A.M. Redondo-Cano
ISSN 1695-7121
553
changing processes oriented towards sustainability, as
we were able to verify after interviewing people.
ISO 9001:2000 certifi cation has contributed to a bet-ter
use of technology, of administrative controls and to
the improvement of some decision-making processes.
The fi nancial investment has been very high, but the
hotel thinks that is going to recover this money in the
immediate future. For the moment, it has not been a
simple marketing tool, because customers did not requi-re
this certifi cation. However, ISO has acted as a driver
of the hotel employees’ training process. Table 10 shows
some of the organizational implications that have been
derived as a result of both certifi cations.
The PLH has not modifi ed its structure and main-tains
the same organizational chart. The different plans
are revised every two years. As we have indicated, or-ganizational
structure has not been modifi ed as process
management was in place before certifi cation.
Also, both certifi cation processes have contributed to
the establishment of a continuous training process, as
explicitly stated in the implementation plans.
At a marketing level, CST seems to have contributed
to winning over new customers. One explanation could
lie in the fact that CST certifi cate has been considered
as a key criterion for national and foreigner customers
when they selected their hotel; customers wanted to
know if the hotel had the “leaf stamp” which symbolizes
sustainable tourism.
Another remarkable result of the certifi cation pro-cesses
has to do with their fi nancial impact. The study
of PLH has shown that the fi nancial results of the fi rm
have improved after the achievement of both certifi ca-tes.
Possible explanations to this fact could be that the
demand has increased after the achievement of the cer-tifi
cates and also that operations have become easier for
employees thanks to the establishment of work proce-dures
and processes (formalization) and the acquisition
of the essential technology what could have contributed
to an increase in employees’ productivity.
These results commented above need further empi-rical
research. Our study only has revealed a possible
(hypothetical) relationship between the attainment of
both certifi cates and the increase in demand, in produc-tivity
levels and an improvement in the fi nancial situa-tion
of the fi rm. However, our study does not allow us to
conclude anything about the possible causality of these
relationships. Future research avenues arise to this res-pect.
Conclusions
The case of PLH has illustrated that CST and ISO
9001:2000 certifi cations may be complementary and, as
a result, generate organizational improvements both in-ternally
and externally.
The implementation and certifi cation of the CST
standard at the PLH was explained by the decision of
this fi rm to focus its strategy on the needs and expec-tations
of its main market, that is, people looking for
ecotourism. This initiative was coherent with PLH’s
mission and vision. On the other hand, the certifi cation
based on the ISO 9001:2000 standard came to PLH as
a way of supporting the international reputation of the
company and a competitive strategy based on differen-tiation
through quality and ecotourism.
The combination of both initiatives gave as a result a
complementary effect on the PLH. As stated above, the
CST standard contributed to improve the fi rm from an
Table 9.- Main results of certifi cations
Table 10.- Organizational implications of ISO 9001:2000 & CST certifi cations
bl i l ifi i
level, we must point out
the generation of a conti-nuous
improvement cultu-re.
Workers are happy and
satisfi ed with their work,
as they can contribute to
improving the conditions of
their community. Workers
feel committed to sustaina-bility
and participate in the
external perspective. The CST cer-tifi
cate facilitated the achievement
of a better image and reputation
on the part of the hotel and contri-buted
to modify the behavior and
attitude of employees in line with
the respect to the environment and
care about natural resources. The
554
PASOS. Revista de Turismo y Patrimonio Cultural, 9(4). 2011
Is certifi cation for sustainable tourism complementary to ISO 9000 certifi cation? ...
ISSN 1695-7121
ISO 9001 certifi cation led the fi rm to set into practice
internal changes (increase of formalization, formulation
of explicit goals and policies, establishment of metrics
and indicators, etc.) that generated, as a consequence,
the improvement of the levels of productivity, effi ciency,
and customer satisfaction.
Thus, the application of both standards by the PLH
has contributed to the achievement of positive organi-zational
results. Also, the implementation of the ISO
9001:2000 standard was facilitated by the existence of
some organizational practices that were adopted due
to the CST requirements. Therefore, we may state that
the CST standard turned out to be a fundamental faci-litator
for the implementation of the ISO 9001 standard
by the PLH.
This work tries to represent a fi rst effort in the stu-dy
of the complementariness of these two standards by
the tourist sector. From this viewpoint, this paper may
be a starting point for academicians interested in the
study of the phenomenon analyzed in this paper (com-plementariness
of CST and ISO 9001 standards). Also,
practitioners and businessmen could fi nd in this paper
evidence that supports the complementariness of both
standards by an organization of the tourist sector. This
fact may be especially signifi cant for fi rms that compete
in the ecotourism sector.
As this paper constitutes a fi rst attempt to study the
complementariness of CST and ISO 9001 standards,
some limitations may be raised. The novelty of the topic
studied here has made us have diffi culties on fi nding
specifi c academic literature to found our theoretical fra-mework.
We hope our study may contribute to fi ll in
this gap.
Also, the empirical part of the study is based on a
single case study; hence, the results presented here can-not
be generalized to a broader context. However, the
aim of a single case study is not statistical generaliza-tion
as Yin (1989) states, but the in-depth analysis of a
phenomenon in its real context.
Some future research lines would have to do with
overcoming some of the limitations of the study. To this
respect, this research could be further developed with
the study of more cases to try to identify patterns. In so
doing, we could establish solid propositions that could
be tested in future investigations. Also, some relations-hips
derived from our current descriptive research could
be analyzed in greater detail with the application of a
broader methodology. For instance, the link between
the application of both standards and the improvement
of organizational performance would need further re-search
through the application of a quantitative study.
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Note
1 Though “there is no generally accepted understanding of their
precise meaning and a defi nitional approach appears proble-matic”
(Pforr, 2001: 68), ecotourism and sustainable tourism
represent different concepts and ideas. However, a more re-fi
ned perspective on the topic suggests that ecotourism can
be understood as the intersection of nature-based tourism and
sustainable tourism (Fennell, 1999; Wearing and Neil, 1999).
Ecotourism implies the development of sustainable tourism in
natural areas, embracing in this way the values and principles
of sustainability that have to do with balancing economic, eco-logical
and social aspects as an integrated whole (Pforr, 2001).
Therefore, ecotourism could be considered as a particular way
of sustainable tourism; but recognizing the difference between
both concepts (the latter more comprehensive and generic), in
this paper we are going to consider them entailing the same
idea.