Has the expectation for Environmental Sustainability in Delhi hotels by business travelers changed since 2007?

The objective of this study is to identify the change in business travelers’ attitude towards environmental sustainability (ES) in Delhi’s premium hotel (4 and 5 star) since 2007. This research also aims to establish whether a hotel’s environmental sustainability practices (ESP) have any influence on the hotel selection by the business traveler. This research builds on the study of Manaktola and Jauhari (2007) that focused on determining the factors influencing the attitude of hotel customers towards ESP’s employed by hotels in the National Capital Region (NCR) of India. This research introduces the concepts of sustainability and ES based on the current literature and its application in the hotel industry. The literature review also discusses hotel supply chain and the eco-labels that are present to audit and verify the ESP’s employed by the hotels. A model that explains the hierarchy and the interdependency between different eco-labels has been established. A quantitative research methodology was adopted and the data collection was completed through the use of snowball sampling and sending online questionnaires to participants (business travelers). The questionnaires were distributed, administered and collected by Qualtrics, an online survey tool. The data was analyzed through the use of cross tabulations and bar graphs derived from SPSS. The findings indicated a significant change in the participants’ attitude towards ES in Delhi hotels and also indicated that 79 per cent of the participants were willing to pay extra for hotels with ESP’s. The findings also indicated that the hotel selection is governed by the participants’ firm and the company is influenced by the ESP’s employed by Delhi hotels. This study has ascertained that business traveler’s knowledge and awareness about ES has enhanced since 2007 hence, providing justification for investment in ESP’s by the premium hotels of Delhi which mainly cater to the needs of business travelers