Corporate social responsibility as a part of benchmarking analysis: Case study of the Slovenian and Croatian hotel industry

Abstract

In Slovenia and Croatia, tourism (and within tourism especially the hotel industry) is a very important sector of the national economy. If we aim to get the complete picture of performance of the hospitality industry, we must conduct a performance analysis, considering both financial and non-financial indicators. Despite the recognized economic importance, the hotel sector on both sides of the border is facing problems related to differences in the methods of internal monitoring and measuring financial performance. The Slovene hotel sector still has not implemented the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI). Implementation of the USALI is especially important when comparing hotel performance at a local, regional, national or world level, since the uniform accounting system allows the determination of industry norms on a regional, national and international level. Furthermore, the measurement of non-financial indicators such as corporate social responsibility is lacking. In order to enable the Slovene and Croatian hotels to implement a uniform system of benchmarking analysis and thus strive for increasing the level of hotel industry economic development, a joint methodology for monitoring financial and non-financial performance of Slovene and Croatian hotels is in the phase of development. This methodology is being developed as part of an EU project founded by the Operational Programme Slovenia–Croatia 2007–2013. The purpose of this paper is to present the Slovenian and Croatian benchmarking methodology of hotel performance analysis with the emphasis on the development of indicators of corporate social responsibility.