A green management framework for hotels : a case of two African countries

PhD (Tourism Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015Currently, there are environmental issues the world is facing which include global climate change, ozone depletion, pollution, high consumption of resources and increasing amounts of solid waste. Tourism is one of the largest industries and it is an important economic tool. However, it also has many negative effects on the environment. Hotels as one of the tourism industry’s component parts have a significant impact on the environment. From an environmental perspective, hotels consume a large amount of resources such as water and electricity as they make efforts to provide physical comfort to guests. In addition, hotels generate large quantities of waste, which is one of their most visible effects on the environment. Hotels also make a significant contribution to greenhouse gases which are a cause of concern due to the ozone layer depletion. Many hotel customers have become aware of the environmental damages and wasting of environmental resources caused by hotels and they now look for hotels that follow eco-friendly practices. This has brought increasing pressure on hotels to implement more green initiatives. There is limited documented information on green management among hotels in South Africa and in Zimbabwe. While the number and range of impacts hotels have on the environment suggests an urgent need to address them, the environmental management initiatives in these hotels are scantly addressing these green issues and this study is the first to address these issues. The goal of the study was therefore to develop a green management framework for hotels in South Africa and Zimbabwe so that these developing countries may contribute significantly in mitigation of the negative environmental effects. To achieve this goal, two literature chapters addressed the issue of green management and how it can be implemented by hotels. A qualitative research was then carried out employing the case study strategy to collect data from hotel managers in South Africa and Zimbabwe (four in Zimbabwe and four in South Africa). Data was collected using personal interviews involving a direct meeting of the interviewer and the interviewee. Personal interviews were carried out in Zimbabwe. In South Africa, data was collected using telephone interviews. In both Zimbabwe and South Africa, data was recorded on a digital voice recorder. Data was later transcribed and then analysed using the content analysis method. Some of the main findings of the study are that, while some perceptions of managers about the green management concept are consistent with a number of aspects emphasised in literature, some hotel managers do not fully understand or grasp what the concept of green management entails. This indicates that a gap exists between managers’ knowledge and what green management really means, at least according to literature. The study has also established that in most hotels, there is unavailability of green management policies, suggesting that there is a lack of knowledge about the importance of a green management policy amongst hotel managers in these two developing countries. The key contributions of this study are that, it provides insights on the current debate on green management in hotels as revealed through green management initiatives implemented in hotels in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Secondly, the study makes a contribution by doing a supply side analysis and identifying the views of hotel managers with regard to green management. This study also contributed by proposing a green management framework for hotels – an aspect that is currently lacking in the existing literature especially from a developing country point of view. The green management framework proposed has guidelines for implementation. The hoteliers in the two countries will thus benefit from the framework and will be in a position to implement green initiatives to mitigate the negative impacts hotels have on the environment.Doctora