Greening of the Hospitality Industry: Towards Mandatory Green Labelling

GREENING OF THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY:

TOWARDS A CONSISTENT, MANDATORY, RATING STYLE GREEN HOTEL LABELING SYSTEM

AN ARTICLE BY VERITY ILEY
FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD: HEATHER HARTWELL
‘JOURNAL OF FUTURE INDUSTRY ISSUES.’

IN PARTIAL COMPLETION OF BA (HONS) INTERNATIONAL HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
14TH MAY 2008
ABSTRACT:

Environmental issues are of increasing concern nationally and globally. Consumers expect hotels to be environmentally friendly which is found to influence their purchasing decisions. Consumers rely on hotel labeling to clearly inform them of the companies contribution. The increasing perception that consumers are influenced by labeling has lead to an increase in faux eco-tourism or ‘green washing,’ as a method to gaining competitive advantage, mainly through the use of misleading ‘green’ claims. This does not allow the consumer to make a clear and informed choice, green claims interfere with certification program labeling, and there is a lack of education on the consumers behalf of how to interpret the information. The exploitation of this has led to broken down consumer trust, of which needs to be restored in order to progress towards environmental targets. This article seeks to the issue towards recommendation for improvement.

INTRODUCTION

This article will begin by briefly looking at government initiatives and consumer concerns about environmental issues within the hospitality industry specifically focusing on hotels. In will then discuss how hotels have used initiatives, to advertise to and market to consumers, progressing to probe further into green claims, ‘green’ hotel labels and certifications. It then seeks to discuss the importance and relevance of clear labeling from environmental issues, The article will explore the issue of ‘green marketing’ and ‘green washing;’ how it is seen to be exploiting current legislation and to some extent consumer naivety, following this it will round up the issues with hotel

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