by

Ishmael MensahDepartment of Hospitality & Tourism

Management

University of Cape Coast.

• Background• Problem statement• Objectives• Hypotheses• Literature review• Conceptual framework• Methodology• Major findings• Conclusions • Recommendations

• Environmental issues occupy a centre-stage in global affairs.

• Hotel facilities generate waste and consume large amounts of natural resources.

• Calls for sustainable tourism practices because tourism could be self destructive.

• ‘Sustainable hotels lead to sustainable destinations’ (WCST, 1995, Lazarote, Spain; SHSD International Conference, Maspalomas, Canary Islands in October 2000).

• Rise in green consumerism and tourists increasingly becoming concerned about the environment of destinations.

• There has been an upsurge in environmental programmes and initiatives by the hotel industry in the developed world.

• The number of registered hotels in has been growing steadily and there are concerns about their environmental impacts.

• Not much research work has been done on environmental performance of the hotel industry in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana.

• Studies have been on environmental management and not environmental performance.

• Studies on environmental management in hotels have focused on the supply side.

The main objective of this study is to assess the environmental performance of hotels in Accra. The specific objectives are to;

• Determine stakeholders’ perception of the environmental performance of hotels;

• Ascertain hotel managers’ attitude towards environmental management in hotels;

• Examine international tourists’ environmental attitude and behaviour and the implications for environmental management by the hotels;

• Assess the factors that influence environmental performance of hotels.

• H1: Hotel organizational characteristics have no positive effect on environmental performance.

• H2 : Socio-demographic characteristics of hotel manager have no positive effect on environmental performance.

• H3: There is no significant difference in environmental performance among different classes of hotels.

• Larger and better quality hotels are more proactive or more committed to environmental management (Mawforth and Munt 1998; Edwards, 2000; Alvarez Gil et al, 2001).

• The environmental performance of hotels depends on the hotel manager’s or owner’s attitude (Bohdanowicz, 2005; Erdogan and Baris, 2007).

• Very little empirical research has been conducted to determine if the socio-demographic characteristics of hotel managers could influence the environmental performance of their hotels.

• Hotel guests are also prepared to pay extra to stay in hotels that are environmental-conscious (Arias et al, 2003; Masau and Prideaux, 2003; Han et al, 2009).

• Very few attempts to look at hotel guests’ attitude towards environmental management practices of the hotel industry.

ANTECEDENTS MODERATORS CONSEQUENCES CONSEQUENCES

ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS • Size/class • occupancy • affiliation • age of facility • age of facility

STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE

• Intermediaries • Competitors • Industry association • Government • Consumers • Communities • Activists/NGOs

CHARACTERISTICS OF MANAGERS

• age • education • religion • income • nationality

• Managers’ characteristics

ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

Composite Model of Corporate Environmental Performance of Hotels

• Research Perspective: Mixed methods i.e. positivist & constructivist (Triangulation).

• Research Design: Explanatory, concurrent nested triangulation and cross-sectional design.

• Research Instruments: Self-administered questionnaires and interview guides.

• Sampling procedure, sample size & response rate: stratified random sampling, convenience and purposive sampling

200 hotel managers out of 243 (82.3% response rate) 343 international tourists out of 382 (89.8% response

rate) Interviews with key informants (AMA, GTB, EPA and

GHA as well as the Kokrobite and La communities)

• Pre-test: in Cape coast and Elmina in May 2010.

• Fieldwork: Personal calls and self-administration of questionnaires between June and August 2010

• Data analysis: SPSS version 16.

• Factor analysis: six factors extracted from the 33 EPIs explaining 57.1% of the variance.

• Reliability of scale of items for measuring environmental performance: Cronbach alpha value of (0.911) well above the limit of 0.70 required for the internal consistency of the constructs.

Operationalization of Dependent Variable33 EPIs in ten areas of environmental management served as the basis

for the assessment of environmental performance of the hotels:

Category Area of Environmental Management Number of EPIs

1 Compliance with environmental laws and legislation 4

2 Conservation 3

3 Eco-labelling and certification 2

4 Environmental auditing 2

5 Environmental education and communication 3

6 Environmental health and pollution prevention 3

7 Green marketing 3

8 Green purchasing 4

9 Support for local communities 4

10 Waste management and recycling 5

Environmental Performance among Hotels in Key Areas

ANOVA test at p < 0.05 was F (3, 196) = 16.14, p = 0.00 with significant differences in 24 out of 33 EPIs. (H3 rejected).

Environmental Performance of Hotels

Hotels that have adopted environmental policies and programmes

Environmental management policies and programmes Frequency Percent

Named officer responsible for environmental management 48 24.0

Written environmental policy statement 17 8.5

Environmental action plan 67 33.5

Environmental purchasing 156 78.0

Offer environmental friendly products and services 157 78.9

Initiatives to improve environmental performance 68 34.0

History of implementing environmental programmes 50 25.1

Source: Fieldwork, 2010

Initiatives to improve environmental performance

Hotel Managers’ Environmental Attitude Statements of environmental initiatives/issues

Total

Agreement percentage*

Mean

Std. Dev.

Hotels have a moral responsibility to protect the environment 200 90.5 4.63 0.77 Improvement in environmental performance will lead to improved financial performance 200 91.5 4.61 0.76 Taking positive action on environmental issues contributes to the hotel’s brand image and competitive market position

199 87.9 4.50 0.81

Hotels contribute to local and global environmental problems through their operations. 200 72.5 4.04 1.23 The hotel industry will be increasingly pressurized by government to take action on environmental issues.

200 71.5 4.24 1.08

*Agreement percentage is composed of both respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the statements Based on a scale of 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)

Factors Influencing Environmental Performance of Hotels• H1 & H2 were tested employing a hierarchical regression

model Y1 = α + β1x1 + ....... +β15x15+ ε

• The overall regression model was significant independent variables significantly explain about 24% of the variance in environmental performance (R2 = 0.242; F= 5.498; p< 0.01).

• Size of hotel (β = 0.35, P<0.05) and class of hotel (β = 0.29, P<0.01) significantly influenced the environmental performance of hotels in Accra. This supports the findings of Alvarez Gil et al (2001) and Cespedes Lorente et al (2003).

• Most socio-demographic characteristics such as nationality, age, level of education, marital status, gender and religion did not significantly influence environmental performance.

International Tourists’ Perception of Hotel Environmental Issues Environmental Issues

N

Percentage in agreement

Mean

Std. Dev

Hotels claim to be environmentally responsible is indeed so 341 14.7 2.53 0.91 Hotels educate their guests on environmental responsibility 326 19.7 2.52 0.98 Hotels contribute to environmental protection and conservation 337 39.8 3.14 0.90 Hotel development and operations destroy the environment 337 34.1 2.90 1.08 Hotels contribute to the global environmental problems 337 45.6 3.25 0.90 Hotels claim to be environmental-conscious to enhance their images 333 69.1 3.65 0.90 Hotels have a responsibility to preserve and protect natural areas 341 87.1 4.21 0.78 I am more likely to book a hotel with a responsible environmental attitude

340 82.4 4.13 0.87

Based on a scale of 1-5; 1= strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.

International Tourists’ Environmental Attitude

• 84% were willing to pay more for their stay in a hotel which was environmentally responsible.

• This result confirmed previous studies by Arias et al. (2003), Masau & Prideaux (2003) and Han et al. (2009).

Extra Amount Tourists are willing to Pay

Tourists’ Perception of Hotels’ Environmental Performance

Area of Environmental Performance

N

Mean

Std.

Dev.

Sanitation and waste management 334 3.90 0.96

Use of local facilities and materials 333 3.87 0.93

Recycling 314 2.86 1.08

Energy conservation 331 3.78 0.97

Water conservation 326 3.85 0.93

Landscaping and nature conservation 329 3.80 1.08

Provision of information to guests 330 3.21 1.14

Educating guests on environmentally-friendly practices 329 2.60 1.14

Environmental health and pollution prevention 328 2.83 1.20

Based on a scale of 1-6 (1 = very poor, 6 = excellent)

Other Stakeholders’ Perception

Hotels in Accra were generally perceived as having both positive and negative impacts on the environment.

“Before this hotel was located here, the whole of the beach used to be very dirty and I could see even women defecating on the beach everyday...... sometimes our fishermen step in faeces when they are pulling their nets” (opinion leader at Kokrobite)

“There are different categories of hotels, hotels in urban areas are not impacting…..though waste is the major problem……large scale hotels and resorts in environmentally sensitive areas are the ones impacting…” (An officer at EPA).

• “Where the hotel and the beach are located used to be where our fishermen operated their business......now they have been forced to move to a smaller place which is not enough for their fishing activities” (Opinion leader at La).

• Stakeholders were of the opinion that hotels were doing very well was in the use of local materials as well as sanitation and waste management but needed to improve in the areas of environmental health, community support, compliance, recycling and environmental education.

• Upscale and larger hotels have better environmental performance.

• Size and class of hotel are the best predictors of hotels’ environmental performance.

• Though hotel managers have positive attitude towards EM, they do not commit enough resources and efforts towards improving their environmental performance.

• Voluntary environmental initiatives are almost non-existent in the hotel industry in Accra.

• Environmental management in the Ghanaian hotel industry is loosely associated with sanitation and waste management.

• Inter-hotel collaboration

• Environmental education

• Encourage development of voluntary environmental programmes

• Green hotel development

• Institute pro-environmental structures and policies

• Change focus of waste management in hotels from waste collection and disposal to waste reduction and recycling.