Environmental impacts and the role of beach hotels in Penang

Considering the fragmented nature of the tourism industry, all key tourism providers including hotels need to play a role by being responsible. As one of the most important service providers in tourism, the hotel business also has environmental impacts and therefore need to lessen these impacts by demonstrating environmentally friendly behaviours. Drawing upon qualitative data, this paper documents and discusses the environmental problems associated with beach hotels in Penang, Malaysia. Then it looks at the existing practices of this hotel segment and how these practices can be improved to mitigate environmental degradation caused by a hotel's operations. The findings indicate that despite the importance of tourism in Penang's economy, mitigating environmental impacts through the cooperation of business is still not emphasized by the government. This led to a half-hearted environmental measures, which only become priority once legislatively mandated, is part of a firm's standard operating procedure, identified as a marketing means or deemed cost effective