sustainability Article Sustainability and the Tourism and Hospitality Workforce: A Thematic Analysis Tom Baum 1, *, Catherine Cheung 2 , Haiyan Kong 3 , Anna Kralj 4 , Shelagh Mooney 5 ,H ả i Nguy ễ n Thi ˙ Thanh 6 , Sridar Ramachandran 7 , Marinela Dropuli´ c Ruži´ c 8 and May Ling Siow 9 1 Department of Human Resource Management, Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G4 0QU, Scotland, UK 2 School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China; catherine.cheung@polyu.edu.hk 3 Business School, Shandong University (Weihai), Jinan 250100, China; konghaiyan@sdu.edu.cn 4 Griffith Business School, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD 4222, Australia; a.kralj@griffith.edu.au 5 School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland 1010, New Zealand; shelagh.mooney@aut.ac.nz 6 Vietnam Institute for Human Rights, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam; thanhhai72@gmail.com 7 Institute of Agricultural and Food Policy Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Selangor 43400, Malaysia; sridarupm@gmail.com 8 Department of Tourism, Institute of Agriculture and Tourism, Poreˇ c 52440, Croatia; marinela@iptpo.hr 9 School of Management and Languages, Heriot Watt University, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya 62200, Malaysia; mlsiow@gmail.com * Correspondence: t.g.baum@strath.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-141-548-3954 Academic Editor: Ian Patterson Received: 14 June 2016; Accepted: 11 August 2016; Published: 17 August 2016 Abstract: This paper is about the position of workforce and employment considerations within the sustainable tourism narrative. The paper aims to address the relative neglect of this area within the discourse of sustainable tourism and highlights references to the workforce within the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The discussion follows the emerging field of sustainable human resource management and the contribution that this can make to meeting both the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to enhancing the recognition of workforce and employment issues within the related debate in tourism. The body of the paper highlights examples of key dimensions of work and employment across varied tourism contexts, where sustainability is of increasing consequence and significance. The paper concludes by drawing together the implications of these “mini-cases” and locating them within key principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Keywords: sustainability; sustainable tourism; employment; workforce; education; gender; careers; social enterprise; human rights 1. Introduction In 2015, the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which highlights 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice and tackle climate change by 2030. While only the eighth goal (decent work and employment growth) specifically references the workplace and the environment of work, it is arguable that a significant number of the goals impinge in one way or another on the workforce and workplace in tourism. Thus, work, and indeed “decent work” as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) would style it, is at the heart of the sustainability debate. Nowhere is this Sustainability 2016, 8, 809; doi:10.3390/su8080809 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability