Proposta de melhoria dos impactos sociais das micro e pequenas empresas de turismo da região de Arequipa, Peru

Abstract

Tourism in a world level, and specifically in Peru, is one of the fastest growing industries; involving, directly or indirectly, a great number of people; bringing economic and social development to the countries. However, sometimes these benefits are not perceived by the society, mainly in developing countries, as Peru. On the other hand, in Peru, Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) represent 99,4% of formal organizations and the greatest source of employment, nevertheless, the level of MSE informality is high, it would represent negative social impacts. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to propose improvement actions on the social impacts of touristic MSE raised in Arequipa, Peru. In that sense, the Social Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA) technique was utilized; doing a complete and specific analysis, considering all the involved stakeholders in touristic activities and obtaining data for the Social Life Cycle Inventory only from primary sources; the Social Life Cycle Impact Assessment is type 1, and using the Subcategory Assessment Method (SAM), additionally a social impact quantification was done, following the customized scores and weights method; recognizing social hotspots, in order to propose improvement actions. Results show a positive social performance of touristic activities, except for touristic restaurants in ‘Society’ stakeholder. In spite of the good general social performance, some MSE show pretty negative performances in the following subcategories (hotspots): ‘Freedom of association and collective bargaining’, ‘fair salary’, ‘working time’, ‘access to material resources’, ‘healthy living conditions’, ‘public commitments with sustainability’. So, an action plane was proposed, whose purpose is to improve the MSE’s social performance in the identified social hotspots, regarding, in a term of two years, to achieve a positive performance in every subcategory. The action plane includes urgent measures as the increment of salaries, because they might be fair for every worker; the adequacy of working time; and the participation and of the MSE in infrastructure or health initiatives for the local community. Thus, it is highly suggested to implement the action plane and be applied by the MSE for improving their social performance.