Hotels' environmental policies and employee personal environmental beliefs: Interactions and outcomes

Recent trends in green consumerism are leading the hotel industry to assume corporate social responsibility that may place the industry at the forefront of green innovation. Research reveals that adopting green practices is beneficial for the hotel and tourism industry. Nonetheless, a corporation's success in adopting green practices depends not only on corporate attitudes towards environmental issues but also on its employees' personal beliefs and everyday actions. This study fills the gap in existing research by adopting the concept of a “green organisational climate” and using personal belief variables to explore the contextual and individual variation in hotel employees' environmental behaviour. The results from two-level linear hierarchical models (HLM) show that individual- and group-level factors are significantly associated with the employees' environmental beliefs and behaviour. In other words, personal environmental norms explain within-hotel variance, but green organisational climates explain between-hotel variance and moderate the effect of personal environmental norms on employees' environmental behaviour. Greater emphasis on intense corporate engagement in incorporating environmental policies, human resources management and provision of environmental education for employees should be introduced and implemented.     

Managing green marketing: Hong Kong hotel managers’ perspective

In view of the serious environmental problems we are currently facing, taking action to protect our planet is becoming more persuasive and important. Along with various environmental initiatives, the concept of green marketing emerged in the late 1980s. Some hotels have taken various initiatives to position themselves as green hotels, including the use of eco-labels as a marketing ploy to attract customers. Nevertheless, some of the hotels that use these green marketing strategies have been accused of “green washing”. The main aim of this study is to investigate Hong Kong hotel manager perceptions of the relative importance of different green marketing strategies. Questionnaires containing 30 attributes were distributed to this effect. The findings reveal that hotel managers equally perceive “Hotel green marketing should begin with green product and service design”, “Hotels provide products and services that do no harm to human health” and “The Internet is an effective channel to market a hotel's green initiatives to customers directly” as the top green marketing ploys. Independent t-tests and one-way ANOVA were also used to examine significant differences in the way hotel managers with different professional backgrounds and individual demographic characteristics rate the importance of hotel-related green marketing strategies. The findings indicate that lower-grade hotels tend to adopt lean green marketing strategies, whereas hotels with larger sizes or formal environmental management systems are likely to adopt shaded or extreme green marketing strategies. The study also provides a number of insights to help hotel managers and especially marketers better understand the implementation and importance of different green marketing strategies, thereby allowing them to employ suitable measures to avoid the “green washing” designation and attract more green-conscious travellers.     

Which hotel guest segments reuse towels? Selling sustainable tourism services through target marketing

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews and evaluates the wide range of supply and demand side measures employed and tested to reduce the environmental impacts of tourist accommodation. It focuses on the importance of understanding market segments and their pro-environmental behaviour by exploring the personal and travel characteristics significantly associated with pro-environment beneficial change, empirically investigating hotel guest characteristics associated with higher towel reuse. Towel use per day, per room, is modelled according to the number of adults in the room, the number of children, and the type and origins of guests. Observed actual towel use by 204 travel parties spending 480 nights in a four-star hotel in Slovenia reveals key personal and travel characteristics of hotel guests which are predictive of towel reuse: their country of origin, booking methods used, being a business traveller and not being a family. Results point to a-priori market segments which could be given booking preference in periods of high demand to reduce hotel environmental footprints. Results also point to promising leverage points for interventions designed to modify the behaviour of hotel guests on site. The approach and methodology used could be applied to marketing pro-environmental concepts more widely across other sustainable initiatives.     

Determinants of willingness to pay to stay at a green lodging facility

The adoption of green initiatives is attracting increasing attention among tourism providers and researchers. One important dimension of travellers’ environmental concern is their willingness to pay higher rates for green travel products. This study determines the association between pro-environmental attitudes and beliefs, and willingness to pay a higher room rate at a green lodging facility. A survey of 388 travellers in Michigan, USA, revealed a positive relationship between environmental concern (measured using the New Environmental Paradigm scale) and willingness to pay for a green hotel room. Income was the only one of a series of socioeconomic, demographic and travel pattern variables to reach statistical significance. Additional evidence regarding consumer attitudes towards and concomitant behaviours with respect to travel and the environment is vital to the broader consideration of the sustainability of the tourism and hospitality sectors. Understanding of willingness to pay for green practices has important marketing and management implications.     

Role of Perceived Fit With Hotels’ Green Practices in the Formation of Customer Loyalty: Impact of Environmental Concerns

With the increasing concern for ecological issues among hotel customers, this study pursues an investigation of customers' perceptions of hotels' core business in association with green practices and the resulting purchase-related loyalty (i.e. intentions to visit, accept price premiums, and recommend). In addition, the study examines the moderating role of environmental concerns in the relationships among perceptions of hotels' green practices and loyalty components. A survey of tourists using hotels showed that customers related hotels' core businesses and green practices positively, which consequently affected customers' purchase intentions toward the hotels. This study is unique in academia in that it investigates the fit theory for the hospitality industry by considering the impact of environmental concerns, while employing environmental practices as an emerging social cause, which is, increasingly, important for the society. This study is beneficial by providing hotel managers with insight into hotel customers' decision-making processes regarding green practices.     

Hotel guests’ perceptions of environmental friendly practices in social media

Despite hotels’ managers spend substantial time and money on environmental initiatives; they are not sure whether their guests perceive their green efforts appropriately. The purpose of this study is to analyze guests’ perceptions of hotels’ environmental practices expressed through social media. Main results suggest that even though customers perceive green efforts regarding six items: Energy, Water, Purchasing, Waste, Site and Education & Innovation, they do not discern hotels' level of environmental commitment. Moreover, guests' perceptions of hotel efforts in environmentally friendly practices do not significantly differ by the mode of travel nor by the reviewer's experience in travel platforms. A relevant implication is that the communication about environmentally friendly practices needs to be redesigned and intensified by hotel managers in order to take advantage of these efforts.     

Eliciting customers’ waste reduction and water saving behaviors at a hotel

Without a doubt, sustainability is a critical issue in the world’s hotel industry. The present study examined the key cognitive, affective, and normative determinants of customers’ waste reduction and water saving intentions during their hotel stay. This research also investigated the effect of involvement of green behaviors in everyday life as a moderator. A survey methodology and quantitative approach were utilized while conducting this study. Our results revealed that environmental value, concern, and awareness acted as significant cognitive triggers in forming pro-environmental intentions, and that anticipated feelings were important contributors to increasing intentions. The salient role of moral norm in determining environmentally responsible decision was also uncovered. Moreover, the results from the invariance test demonstrated that involvement of green behaviors included a significant moderating effect. Overall, our conceptual model sufficiently explained the variance in pro-environmental intentions among hotel customers.     

Customer accounting and marketing performance measures in the hotel industry: Evidence from Australia

Increasingly competitive environments have focused hotel managers’ attention on gaining competitive advantage by maximising the potential of their customer base. This paper provides the results of a study of the use and antecedents of customer accounting and marketing performance measures in the Australian hotel industry. The findings of a survey of 165 Australian hotel managers provide evidence that large, highly market orientated hotels with a decentralised structure use more customer focused accounting and marketing practices. Additionally, support was also found for a significant positive relationship between market orientation and a prospector-type strategy, as well as market orientation and both financial and non-financial performance.     

How do green attributes elicit pro-environmental behaviors in guests? The case of green hotels in Vietnam

This study aims to identify green-hotel attributes and determinants that contribute to guests’ intention generation for visiting a green hotel and practicing pro-environmental actions during their hotel stay. The study’s results find five dimensions (Customer benefit, Energy efficiency, Water efficiency, Recycling policy and Green characteristic) that underlie 24 green-hotel attributes. Out of the five dimensions, Customer benefit, Energy efficiency, and Green characteristic are found to positively affect pro-environmental value and attitude that in turn enhance intention to practice environmentally friendly actions and visit a green hotel, while pro-environmental value does not trigger pro-environmental attitude. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

What drives employees’ intentions to implement green practices in hotels? The role of knowledge,awareness, concern and ecological behaviour

This study investigates the effects of three green triggers – environmental knowledge, environmental awareness and environmental concern – and employees’ ecological behaviour on their intentions to implement green practices in hotel companies. Data was collected through a survey from 438 hotel employees in Hong Kong and structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses. The results indicate that the three green triggers are positively associated with ecological behaviour and ecological behaviour is positively associated with intention to implement green practices in hotels. Additionally, ecological behaviour mediates the relationship between the three green triggers and intentions to implement. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.     

All that glitters is not green: Creating trustworthy ecofriendly services at green hotels

While there is much emphasis on authentic green practices, there is rising concern about the common practice of "greenwashing" or unsubstantiated claims about good environmental policies. Consequently, tourism businesses need to provide tangible evidences to create trust in their green claims. This paper, building on a sequential mixed method approach of data collection, proposes a potential green service encounter (GSE) framework by which hotel management can reassure customers and secure long-term patronage. Moderating role to two key contextual variables, travel purpose and environmental values of travelers, is investigated. Practical implications indicate that hotels should offer guests opportunities for enhanced involvement in GSE that help build consumer trust. The trust building process is dependent on a traveler's environmental values but independent of trip purpose. The GSE framework conceptualization included interviews with 25 green hotel guests and a panel of experts while empirical validation involved a sample of over 500 respondents.     

Planning for an environmental management programme in a luxury hotel and its perceived impact on staff: an exploratory case study

Hotels generate substantial environmental footprint. To minimise this footprint, hoteliers are increasingly engaging in environmental management programmes (EMPs). When designing such a programme, it is important that hotel managers do not only evaluate its effect on corporate strategy, finance, and reputation, but also analyse its impact on staff. This is because employees are in the forefront of hotel environmental management interventions and can determine their success or failure. This is also due to the impact that EMPs can make on staff attitudes, both at work and in private life. This study explores how hotel employees perceive an opportunity to engage in an EMP in a luxury hotel. It finds that a well-designed and implemented programme can strengthen the levels of job satisfaction and organisational commitment among hotel staff, subject to explaining the reasons for and outlining the benefits of environmental management interventions, incentivised participation, regular evaluation, and adequate training. The study also shows that EMPs implemented in a hotel may drive more environmentally responsible behaviour of employees outside work.     

Self-discipline or self-interest? The antecedents of hotel employees' pro-environmental behaviours

Abstract

Motivating employees to engage in pro-environmental behaviours is an essential topic in the tourism and hotel fields. This paper advances this research direction by integrating the mechanisms of cognition and incentives from the externalities/spillovers perspective. This paper argues that we can view the environmental and financial benefits received by hotels and natural environment as positive spillovers from employees' voluntary pro-environmental behaviours. Accordingly, internalization (the subject of positive spillovers cognitively perceives oneness with beneficiaries like hotels and physical environment) and compensation (beneficiaries offer incentives for positive spillovers' subject) are two leading solutions to the positive spillovers issue, which can improve employees' engagement in pro-environmental behaviours. Hence, this paper explores the impact of employees' cognitive internalization (work ethic) and positive incentives from the organization and nature (hotel's environmental benefit sharing and health rewards rooted in employees' ecological embeddedness) on employees' pro-environmental behaviours in the hotel industry. The empirical analysis of a sample of 324 employees working in Chinese luxury hotels suggests that employees' work ethic, hotel's environmental benefit sharing and employees' ecological embeddedness are significantly positively related to employees' pro-environmental behaviours and that the interplay of employees' work ethic and ecological embeddedness significantly and negatively affects employees' pro-environmental behaviours.     

Don't change my towels please: Factors influencing participation in towel reuse programs

Towel reuse is the flagship of hotel environmental practices. This paper examines the effects of consumer demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics influencing a two-stage decision making process including participation and support to a towel reuse program. A meta-analysis shows that 53% of customers are willing to financially support green hotels. A survey of 1304 Greek and foreign hotel customers in tourism hot spots in Greece reveals that 72% of hotel customers would adopt a towel reuse program while 44.1% are willing to pay extra an average of 2.15 euros per day to support it. Younger customers and customers that book high-priced hotels or with higher length of stay exhibit higher willingness to pay extra for towel reuse programs. As rising water and energy shortages in specific tourism hotspots bring hotels' environmental integration under increased scrutiny, the focal findings hold significant implications for hotel managers and tourism policy makers.     

From innovation to sustainability: Sustainability innovations of eco-friendly hotels in Taiwan

Sustainable innovation is a critical attribute in modern hotel management, as is widely recognized by experts and hotel managers alike. This paper develops and tests a new integrated theoretical model of associations among innovation diffusion, environmental marketing strategy, sustainability innovations, and the organizational environment. This research also considers the mediating effect of environmental marketing strategy and the moderating role of the organizational environment. The results of a study that included 367 managers of eco-friendly hotels in Taiwan provide support for this model across various dimensions of hotels’ sustainable innovation. The present study found relationships among innovation diffusion, environmental marketing strategy and sustainability innovations, and a mediating effect of environmental marketing strategy. The results also confirmed that the organizational environment moderates the relationship between innovation diffusion and environmental marketing strategy. That is, a supportive organizational environment will enhance the effect of innovation diffusion on environmental marketing strategy.     

The Role of Expected Outcomes in the Formation of Behavioral Intentions in the Green-Hotel Industry

Despite customers' increasing environmental concerns and demand for green products in the lodging industry, there has been a lack of research undertaken to identify critical factors in hotel consumers' eco-friendly decision-making processes. The present study was designed to identify the expected outcomes of staying at a green hotel from a customer's perspective and to examine the relationships between the identified factors and behavioral intentions (i.e., visit intention and word-of-mouth intention). To achieve these objectives, this study used both qualitative (a focus group) and quantitative (survey and regression analysis) methodological approaches. A total of seven expected outcomes were identified through the focus group. An online survey of U.S. hotel customers was conducted. The results of the regression analysis evidenced that hotel customers' expected outcomes of staying at a green hotel had a positive influence on behavioral intentions, which demonstrated the role of expected outcomes as direct antecedents of behavioral intentions and as an immediate reason for choosing a green hotel over a non-conventional hotel. Findings from an additional analysis indicated that healthy guestrooms, eco-friendly practices, and reduced expenses were positively associated with visit intention. Further, healthy guestrooms, reduced expenses, organic foods, and environmental protection had a positive and significant impact on word-of-mouth intention.     

Mindfulness and pro-environmental hotel preference

This research investigates the effect of mindfulness on pro-environmental hotel preference. The results of six studies demonstrate that both trait mindfulness and temporary states of mindfulness increase tourists' preferences for pro-environmental hotels. Further, we show that the effect of mindfulness on the preference for a pro-environmental hotel is due to a reduction in the influence of materialism. Mindful tourists are less materialistic, which makes them more likely to choose pro-environmental hotel options. Our study offers important insights regarding the role of mindfulness within tourists' preferences for environmentally friendly options.     

Employees’ green recovery performance: the roles of green HR practices and serving culture

A tourist organization’ green sustainability can be achieved not only through its employees’ environmental activities but also through their green recovery behavior performed to resolve or recover environmentally–unfriendly actions in their tourist services. The primary aim of our research is to investigate the role of green human resource (HR) practices (training, empowerment and rewarding for pro-environmental behaviors) in fostering employees’ green recovery performance. Participants recruited for this study comprised frontline employees and their supervisors from tour companies based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The research results provided support for the mediation role of employee environmental commitment for the positive effects of green HR practices on employee's green recovery performance. Moreover, serving culture was found to play a moderating role to strengthen the impacts of green HR practices on employee environmental commitment as well as for the effect of employee environment commitment on their green recovery performance.     

Establishing attributes of an environmental management system for green hotel evaluation

This study establishes attributes of an environmental management system (EMS) for the hotel industry in Taiwan to create an instrument to help address green hotel auditing. Hotel EMS indicators were initially selected from ISO14000 and nine representative foreign green hotel assessment systems. The Delphi method conducted on twenty five experts with government officials, scholars and hotel managers for item modification to identify the preliminary EMS evaluation framework. An indicator selection process was employed to determine the dimensional indicators of the system. The data analysis reveals that a total of 64 indicators into ten dimensions were identified and prioritized in terms of their relative importance and feasibility. Moreover, 38 indicators are suitable for use and 18 of them should be implemented firstly in Taiwan hotel industry. The results also reveal the comparison with Taiwan government's environmental standards. Finally the EMS approach of this study provides managerial implications for government, hoteliers and consumers to improve their environmental management.     

Influencing tourists' pro-environmental behaviours: A social marketing application

Tourism, whilst delivering economic benefits, can deliver environmental harm. Although several measures to mitigate tourism's environmental effects have been documented, a shared responsibility that encompasses the tourism industry and tourists themselves is needed to limit environmental damage. This paper demonstrates how social marketing can be applied to gain insights that can be used by the tourism industry to promote pro-environmental behaviours of targeted tourists to contribute positively to the environment. Social benchmarks that were applied resulted in the identification of two segments, one of which was examined in more detail using a follow-up interview format to gain insights for intervention planning, design and implementation. Implications for the role that tourism may play in delivering changes that benefit our planet are outlined and opportunities for future research are provided.