The ‘CSR facade’ of the hospitality industry: The importance of social responsibility in fighting sex trafficking and illegal sex purchases in hotels

Abstract

Hotels are often regarded as (un)wittingly complicit in terms of sex traffickers using their facilities for illegal sex purchases. This article examines chain employees’ experiences of individual social responsibility (ISR) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the interaction between hotels and three stakeholder groups (online booking channels; governmental and non-governmental organizations; and nearby hotels) in the fight against sex trafficking and illegal sex purchases. Employee perspectives were gathered through semi-structured interviews in Sweden and the Netherlands, two countries with distinctive prostitution legislation. The findings highlight that the hotel employees found tensions between ISR and CSR and the relationship with the external stakeholders challenging. What became apparent was that CSR is often a facade used to report back positive results to external stakeholders rather than CSR and ISR playing a proactive role in fighting sex trafficking and illegal sexual purchases. We conclude by arguing for the necessity to better understand the relationships between ISR and CSR within the hospitality industry and suggesting that there remains a need for better understandings of how CSR can work across industry stakeholders and within academic research in order to ensure actionable outcomes that make a difference.