Are Lodging Customers Ready to Go Green? an Examination of Attitudes, Demographics, and Eco-Friendly Intentions

International Journal of Hospitality Management 30 (2011) 345–355

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Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

j o u r n a l  h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / i j h o s m a n

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Are lodging customers ready to go green? An examination of attitudes, demographics, and eco-friendly intentions

Heesup Han a,  , Li-Tzang Jane Hsu b,1, Jin-Soo Lee c,2, Chwen Sheu d,3

a Department of Tourism Management, College of Business Administration at Dong-A University, Bumin-dong 2-ga, Seo-gu, Busan 602-760, Republic of Korea b College of Business Administration at Kansas State University, 2E Calvin Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-1404, USA

c School of Hotel and Tourism Management at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong

d College of Business Administration at Kansas State University, 19D Calvin Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506-1404, USA

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a r t i c l e        i n f o

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Keywords:

Green hotel Eco-friendly attitudes Personal characteristics Eco-friendly intentions

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a b s t r a c t

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This study attempted to answer the following research questions: (1) Do eco-friendly attitudes affect hotel customers’ environmentally friendly intentions to visit a green hotel, to spread word-of-mouth about a green hotel, and to pay more for a green hotel?; (2) If so, which facet of attitudes has the greatest impact?;

(3) How do their expressed intentions differ across gender, age, education, and household income?; (4) How do such expressed intentions differ based on the existence of previous experience staying at a green hotel? A total of 422 cases were used to answer the research questions. Findings indicate that customers’ green attitudes are, in general, significantly associated with their expressed intentions to visit a green hotel, to spread word-of-mouth about a green hotel, and to pay more for it. Gender differences in such intentions were found, and the intentions were affected by their previous experiences with a green hotel. However, the eco-friendly intentions did not significantly differ across age, education, and household income.

© 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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1.  Introduction

The concept of business sustainability has received considerable attention from both practitioners and academicians, and concerns regarding environmental protection have brought about changes in consumer demands and behaviors (Mendleson and Polonsky, 1995; Ottman, 1992). A large number of customers show increased environmental awareness and a preference for green firms and their products, revealing their willingness to purchase and pay more for environmentally friendly products/services (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007; Mendleson and Polonsky, 1995; Vandermerwe and Oliff, 1990). A recent research done by the Athens Labora-tory of Research in Marketing in collaboration with the Center of Sustainability about the green marketing found more than 92% of consumers has a positive attitude towards the companies that are sensitive on environmental matters (Papadopoulos et al., 2009). To fulfill emerging green needs, business leaders in various fields have made every effort to change their corporate structures/cultures to

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Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 51 200 7427; fax: +82 51 200 4335.

E-mail addresses: heesup@donga.ac.kr (H. Han), lth8888@ksu.edu (L.-T.J. Hsu),

hmsoolee@polyu.edu.hk (J.-S. Lee), csheu@ksu.edu (C. Sheu). 1 Tel.: +1 785 532 6275; fax: +1 785 532 5959.

2  Tel.: +852 2766 4766; fax: +852 2362 9362.

3  Tel.: +1 785 532 4363; fax: +1 785 532 1339.

0278-4319/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.07.008

be more environmentally responsible and to modify their exist-ing products/services to be more environmental friendly (Dief and Font, 2010; D’Souza and Taghian, 2005; Ottman, 1992).

The competitiveness of the travel industry can be enhanced by the popularity of a destination environment and by the presence of natural attractions. However, travel products often negatively impact the natural environment since heavy visitor traffic can lead to degradation of natural structures (Hillery et al., 2001). Nowa-days, hotels are increasingly focusing on green management as they contribute to environmental degradation through the con-struction of buildings, waste disposal, and water usage (Mensah, 2006). According to a report by UNWTO, UNEP, and WMO (2007), the hotel industry is responsible for about 21% of all CO2 emissions related to tourism. As people are increasingly concerned about global warming, travelers are more likely to make an eco-friendly decision to select a hotel. Therefore, a growing number of hotels ha implemented eco-friendly practices and environmental strate-gies, and converted purchasing or operating procedures to be more environmentally friendly (Ton, 1996; Wolfe and Shanklin, 2001). Gradually, going green is believed to be an effective competitive edge in the lodging market (Gustin and Weaver, 1996; Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007; Wolfe and Shanklin, 2001; Han et al., 2009). As a result, a critical challenge for hotel marketers is to gain a better understanding of current/potential customer’s desire and intention for green consumption (Han et al., 2009). In particular, improv-ing their understanding of the eco-friendly attitudinal profiles of