Sustainable Supply Chain Management in Tourism: An Understanding of the Prospective Possibilities of Environmental Performance

Introduction

In today's tourism market, characterized by competition between territories, technological advances and changes in supply and demand, each destination must manage its offer, coordinate the actions of the various stakeholders and constantly evaluate and reinvent its tourism strategies to improve its appeal and performance. Tourism stakeholders are encouraged to constantly reinvent their strategies to improve the services offered and, consequently, customer satisfaction (Bentalha, 2023). This mainly involves innovating tourism and related services, spatial differentiation and improving destination visibility on national and international markets (Tyagi et al., 2023). Coordinating the players involved in tourism activities is of paramount importance. The main and complementary tourist services must be arranged and coordinated to provide a successful global experience for the tourist. This coordination creates several factors of organizational complexity, and requests an appropriate management.

Tourism services therefore require a value network linking all the players involved. The logic of networks has long been omnipresent in the world of the tourism industry, so we speak of tourism logistics. Tourism Supply Chain Management is a current concept coveted by researchers and practitioners alike (Tigu & Calareţu, 2013; Szpilko, 2017). Tourism supply chain management is the process of planning, organizing and coordinating the activities required to deliver tourism services effectively and efficiently. It brings together a variety of actors, including hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, carriers, raw material suppliers, distributors and customers. It handles all the logistical flows required to ensure quality service for tourists. The tourism supply chain process begins with demand planning, which involves forecasting customers' needs for tourism services. Next, supply planning is carried out to ensure that tourism services are available to meet these needs. This stage includes supplier selection, contract negotiation and inventory management. The next phase is operations management, which involves coordinating the activities of the various service providers involved in delivering tourism services. Finally, the tourism supply chain includes the management of returns, with the aim of reusing or recycling materials, and the collection of customer feedback.

All over the world, the imperatives of sustainable development are imposing themselves on the management of tourism-related logistics flows, particularly in terms of meeting commitments to environmental performance. The sustainability of tourism logistics chains refers to their ability to maintain their effectiveness and efficiency while minimizing their environmental, social and economic impact. It is important to reduce the environmental impact of tourism activities by minimizing waste production, reducing water and energy consumption, using eco-friendly modes of transport and promoting the use of local and sustainable products (Bentalha et al., 2023). In addition, it is crucial to ensure the social sustainability of tourism supply chains by respecting workers' rights, promoting local culture and involving local communities in tourism activities. This can include creating local jobs, promoting education and citizenship. Finally, the economic sustainability of tourism supply chains needs to be transparent, ensuring the financial viability of tourism businesses and promoting a fair distribution of profits among the various stakeholders. This can include promoting fair competition, establishing sustainable partnerships between businesses and local communities, and promoting government policies that favor sustainable tourism. Tourism logistics consume energy, pollute and cause waste. Consideration of the environmental impact of the tourism logistics chain is essential to understanding its impact on environmental performance.

The aim of this paper is to analyze sustainable supply chain tourism and its effects on the environmental performance of service companies. A prospective analysis is used to study the links between sustainable supply chain tourism practices and their effects on environmental performance.

To address this issue, on the basis of a literature review on key concepts and the analysis model constructed accordingly, we introduce the theoretical and conceptual contours of the theme. Based on a prospective study of the possibilities and possible evolutions of the sustainable tourism supply chain, we will present and discuss the results of a quantitative empirical study.