How crucial is the social responsibility for tourism sustainability?

Purpose The paper aims to analyse the social responsibility concept and to explore its role in the implementation process of the tourism sustainability concept. The intention is to explore the way in which the social responsibility concept is implemented in the tourism and analyse how it contributes to its sustainability. Design/methodology/approach In this interpretivist research, the authors implemented a qualitative strategy using the following methods: content, critical and comparative analyses of the results reported in available scientific studies, categorization, causal analysis and mental mapping. The authors identified 14 thematic categories of research on the tourism social responsibility. For the causal description, the authors used driving force, pressure, state, impact, response (DPSIR) method. Findings The results include identification of the categories of the research topics concerning tourism social responsibility as well as categories of the approaches to the implementation of the social responsibility into the practice of the tourism sector. The causal description of this implementation process is elaborated in the form of the DPSIR model. The created mental map shows the specific facets of the social responsibility concept applied to the diverse tourism subsectors. Originality value The main contribution lies in basic overview of the conceptual (theoretical) and instrumental (practical) base for implementation of the social responsibility concept into the tourism, providing in this way a critical analysis of examples of the social responsibility practice in the key tourism subsectors. The examination of the causal analyses in the form of DPSIR model as well as employment of the content analyses in the form of mental map represent innovative approach to the tourism responsibility research.