Impeding factors hindering the implementation of green management initiatives in hotels: A developing country perspective.

Abstract

There is a massive number of activities that exert a significant impact on global resources which emanate from hotel operations. These include high consumption of water, high demand of energy used in an effort to make the guests comfortable as well as the production of large quantities waste. Despite the several studies conducted globally in the field of tourism on environmental management and organisations’ commitment to going green in the tourism industry in developing countries, there has been limited discussion of problems facing hotels implementing green management initiatives. This paper sought to establish impeding factors facing hotels implementing green management initiatives. In this study, which adopted the multiple case approach it was established that there is a considerable number of problems prohibiting implementation of sustainable green management initiatives. This study made a significant contribution to literature in that regard. The study revealed that people employed in the hospitality industry are not finding it easy to embrace green management initiatives. This is due to resistance from people employed in the hospitality industry as green management was relatively a new phenomenon only recently introduced. The study also established that it is specifically the hotel managers’ who lack ideas on how to go green and how to make life healthier within the tourism environment. The study furthermore revealed that one of the main challenges is affordability of the green management initiatives, for instance where construction of the hotel was conducted a few years ago when builders were not essentially concerned with green building.

Keywords

• Hotels
• green management
• sustainable green management