One of the priority areas in our Sustainable Development Strategy is managing people and one of the areas for target-setting is local community development. Staff involvement in community development projects is voluntary and it is well-known that community involvement yields positive and productive outcomes for employees.
Our stakeholder research in 2010 revealed that stakeholders see Cathay Pacific as a business which is above average when it comes to community investment. They also highlighted a number of issues (see 'Key Issues' box).
This feedback coincides with our aim to harness the vitality and value of community involvement in a strategic way. In Hong Kong, we partner with local groups, NGOs and schools. In 2010, we started to assess the impacts of our community investment and engagement in a structured way, using best practice based on a model developed by the London Benchmarking Group. We will report on the progress of this measurement and evaluation exercise in the next Report.
In terms of future alignment with our commercial business strategy, we aim to promote responsible tourism which means looking after the welfare of the local community. Cathay Pacific Holidays, our wholly-owned subsidiary, is planning to review specialist packages as well as ensuring our standard holiday offerings are managed and executed responsibly. We also aim to embrace international best practices and work with our counterparts in the tourism and leisure industries to ensure that our approaches are effective.