GREEN PRACTICES BY THE HOTEL INDUSTRY: STUDY OF AMRITSAR CITY
Abstract
In today’s global state of affairs, pollution has been mounting continuously, global warming has been increasing on a regular basis and world’s natural resources are being depleting at such a pace that the nature may not be able to take burden of so-called development and may collapse overtime. In the recent past, environmental management in the hotel industry was considered of secondary importance, but with the passage of time, the importance of eco-friendly hotels has increased considerably. Hotel industry has also started shifting their attitudes towards the pro-environment activities. The rationale of this research paper has been to analyze the awareness of hotel managers’ on the front of green practices/initiatives in various branded hotels in the Amritsar city. To meet up the objectives of this research paper, views of various hotels’ managers’ have been measured on five-point likert scale. The sample size has been consisted of 58 respondents as hotel managers’ from select seven branded hotels in the Amritsar city. The data collected has been analyzed in the light of the objectives of the study, using descriptive statistics and one-sample t-test statistical tool as tools of quantitative analysis. The findings of the study has shown the altering views of hotel managers’ about various eco-friendly initiatives related to the hotels in the Amritsar city. From the scrutiny of the results of the study, it has been revealed that majority of hotel managers are of the view that adhering to most of the green initiatives in the hotel industry has a positive impact on various green management systems in the industry. However, on other hand, many of them have been found unwilling to execute some of the key green measures that can be undertaken in hotel industry. Thus, it can be concluded from the findings of the study that the main reasons behind this reluctant behavior of the hotel managers can be attributed to the factors like time constraints, cost constraints or lack of awareness about various benefits that can be derived while implementing these green practices. This empirical study would provide the practitioners and hotel managers the knowledge of the advantages of working in eco-friendly manner as a pre-requisite for sustainable development of the Indian economy.
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