Charitable partnerships among travel and tourism businesses: perspectives from low fares airlines.

Abstract

Responsibility has been advocated as a key concept for the future management and governance of the tourism sector yet it has not been the subject of extensive empirical research among businesses and organisations. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by examining corporate philanthropy practises among low-fares airlines as a new and key sub-sector in travel and tourism. An analytical framework is developed and applied. Corporate philanthropy is practised more widely than may have been anticipated by the low-fares business model. For studies of tourism, the paper points to the need for greater theoretical and conceptual urgency in research on CSR and corporate philanthropy if future action is to match current advocacy.