Enhancing The Value Of Green Hotel Tourism Essay

Abstract

For the purpose of enhancing the value of green hotel, the hotel comes out with the new business management concept, which brings the green concept into the hotel operations and management. In order to establish a green marketing concept, it is a need to collect green information, green technology, development of green product, development of green price to carry out green marketing, take deepen green management philosophy to provide green service of the hotel and the construction of green hotel and green culture management, to achieve the sustainable development of the green hotel. Nowadays, the concept of green marketing has generally become the international community to implement in the modern enterprise marketing. Therefore, the green marketing model in hospitality industry become the need in this era, also, the pressure of the external economic environment will force the hospitality industry to do so. There is a low carbon green marketing mode had undergone a great change in the marketing concept and content in some hotels. In this research will attempt to make some personal views on this topic in helping the hotel to have better management. Green marketing will achieve the balance between development of the hotel and the social environment; advocate the green consumption, saving energy, reducing consumption and protect the environment, providing green service will become an important marketing strategy in the hotel industry of China. Lastly, as one of the core ‘green management’, the trend of green marketing in protecting environment and developing in green consumer will achieve a big success in the future.

Introduction

Green concept has become the most important topic in the past few years and it gradually continue to growing up. Action is the one most important in this green concept, without the right action we will not be able to adjust the damage that has been done. Nowadays, the entire world is focused the same problems to protecting environment.

In this part will give an analysis about the entire research, it begins with background of information about the concepts and overview about the base of this study. It then continues to introduce the research problem and explains the objectives and goals of the research.

Background

90 years, the world entered the “era of environmental protection”, “green age.” American Hotel & Lodging Association president pointed out that the most important trends of today’s hotel industry is the hotel’s “green” (environmentally friendly) (Joe McInerney, 2008).Green era of great impact on the world economy, hotel industry is no exception. Today’s society, people only pursue economic development and improved quality of life and people not realized that people’s living space has been severely damaged. People in the production and consumption process start increasingly concerned about resource and environmental protection. People had to choose one that meets the development needs approach to development while protecting the environment, called by sustainable development. While the tourist hotels like energy consumption and serious pollution of heavy industry to the serious ecological and biological damage to the environment but also varying degrees of implicit or explicit pollution and waste of resources. Country’s sustainable development strategy to establish, from the policy, legal acts of the hotel business made specifications, requirements, hotels must implement green marketing; international trend of environmental protection also have a significant impact on the hotel, hotels with international environmental standards required engaged to go green. In the international environmental pressure, a few hotels began to establish awareness of green marketing. However, most hotels are still far away from the green marketing, green concept do not even have color. Hotel implementation of green marketing has long way to go.

Going green is a concept for people how to make the environment become better. This “green” means is multifaceted, it can refer to products, trade or industry, it can be a philosophy or concept of an act, “green” the central meaning refers to protecting the global environment and promote human and nature, socio-economic and ecological harmony, to ensure the sustainable development of human society and the economy. The green movement can make people aware of their daily life affect this living space. Nowadays we are running out of water and other natural resources and this problem can cause the world become worse place for live. Green marketing appears for making a people have responsible daily that benefit for environment and help to reduce the waste. Going green in hospitality industry is defined by being eco-friendly industry with the environment. It contains small changes in daily life and this small change can add up to the bigger changes by our action for protecting the environment.

An important concept behind efforts to reduce damage to the environment is ‘sustainability’, an idea which gained importance because of the publication of ‘Our Common Future’ (Filho, 2000; Daub & Ergenzinger, 2005). Sustainable development is defined as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Hobson & Essex, 2001) Sustainability has been further described by Brady (2005) as comprised of three dimensions: economy, society, and environmental stability. “Environmental sustainability is the process of making sure current processes of interaction with the environment are pursued with the idea of keeping the environment as pristine as naturally possible based on ideal-seeking behavior.”

Commitment about green marketing needs to be the important part in the hotel to protecting the environment, its need to be important for guide the hospitality industry and foster such a culture. It can make the hotel have an environmental culture that will ultimately affect the peoples to have a consequent in the natural environment. However, if people have responsibilities with this kind of environment and concept, and able to apply it in their daily life and work can be consciously adjust their own behavior.

That definition of going green and sustainability development explains why it is so important for both individuals and businesses to make change for their lives and environment. The beginning of the 21st century; smokeless industry, a sunrise industry and green business in China has been continued to growth fast, which the hotel industry in the green on the most prominent. Hotel has been considered a high consumption places to have so many resources, need to have an attention with the environmental protection. In this, the hotel needs to change the concept; the hotel should meet the needs of customers to reduce resources. This perspective should spread through all aspects of hotel operations in the all levels and functions of employees, fundamentally, sustainable development of the hotel.

Sense of social responsibility, many hotels began to take shape. With the gradual promotion of the marketing concept in China, hotels increasingly recognized as part of the community and the hotel should take social responsibility. For example, April 28, 1999, Zhejiang response to dozens of tourist hotels “create green” activities half of them said that we do not begrudge investment, but want to reduce waste, so that the limited resources to achieve maximum effectiveness; hotel intended to limit the guests behavior, just want to work together with customers to improve the ring, and get a good clean “green” feeling.

Statement of the Problem

China is one of the fastest developing countries in the world. Especially development of hotel industry in the China is growing so fast. At the beginning, the hospitality industry in China is not growing compared to other countries. Over time, China had to develop in the hospitality industry very well. With this development, China became one of the top ten international destinations in 2010.

Therefore, the hospitality industry in the world is very wide. They are trying to develop new innovations to the hospitality industry continues to develop stable. Recent years, the environment on the planet where we live is damaged. Everyone in the world started to pay attention on the environment and how to maintain it. They began to appear with the latest innovative green marketing. Hotels in the world began to develop the green concept in this hospitality industry. But the hospitality industry in China is huge and it takes a long time to change each hotel to follow the green concept. They begin to develop from five star hotels to budget hotels. Along with those changes, a lot of problems start to appear when develop the concept of green marketing in the hospitality industry.

One of the obstacles in applying the concept of green marketing is costly. In this green marketing we have to change little by little until it became a big change. But to change the concept of green is the hospitality industry requires cost very much. This change we must begin to change from the base. Hotel’s room is the main product of the hotel. It can start to change from the material of the room’s furniture and continue to how the employee works with the friendly environment. Its means they need to use on recycling of reusable materials for recycling. On the beginning to apply green marketing, hotels need a lot of cost and they need to consider about the quality.

Green hotels focus on the ecological environment, with a focus on the pursuit of economic and environmental benefits of the new management is optimal. Not only every manager, but also every employee mind set of ideas and concepts of green management, it will be possible to allow them to take the initiative to take the behavior of a variety of green management. At first, hotel that you would like the concept of sustainable development as the guiding ideology of management, hotel management must fully understand and analyze the future direction of the hotel is good that tomorrow is a green hotel, why become a green hotel, and how to combine its own hotel management to implement the concept and application of green is the foundation of the hotel staff, implementation of policies to achieve the employee with the hotel management and staff to implement, so let employees understand the company’s development direction and determination. If employees understand what the concept of a green hotel, it also impact for the company, themselves and the community that can bring what is the impact of some complicated process, not easy to reach the company. Management style is also a hotel on the challenges of sustainable development.

Green product in China has not yet become the first choice of hotel. In other countries, green products have become the best-selling products, the first choice for consumers. However, some hotels even get a small gain and the pursuit of contaminated products.

Research Problem

To enable it easier understand and to explore for more details information point of view, the questions will be able to reply to additional verification and give clear successfully obtained results.

What are the problems between green product and environment sustainability?

What are the problems between green price and environment sustainability?

What are the problems between green promotion and environment sustainability?

What are the problems between green place and environment sustainability?

Conceptual Framework

More formally, the main purpose of this study is to identify that the independent variable can influence the environment sustainability development in hotel industry. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2005), independent variable is a variable that studied as a possible cause of something else. According to Hussey and Hussey (1997), dependent variable is a variable that the value are predicted by the independent variable and intervening variable

The intervening variable can be defined as a factor that will affect the observed, but cannot be seen or measured. This intervening variable is referring to relationship between hotel and the environmental sustainability. These relationships is very important, hence they can influence environmental and sustainability for the hotel.

The dependent variable is Environmental Sustainability Development and the independent variable of this study is green price, green product, green promotion, and green place. Thus, green marketing become intervening variable.

Hypotheses:

H1: Green price positively influence hotel to be environment sustainability development.

H2: Green product positively influence hotel to be environment sustainability development.

H3: Green promotion positively influence hotel to be environment sustainability development.

H4: Green place positively influence hotel to be environment sustainability development.

Research Objectives

The main objectives are to study for the following thing:

To identify what are the benefits of going green in green marketing concept for new environment development of hospitality industry.

To mention the problem of applying green marketing concept in the hotel.

To related the green marketing concepts with green marketing mix that consists of green product, green places, green price, and green promotion in the hospitality industry.

To understanding what are the concept of green marketing and the terms of green marketing that related to environmental sustainability development.

To discuss why nowadays green marketing very important in hospitality industry.

Significance of the Study

Combining with all the information and data for the hotel industry to grasp better the green marketing in green concept to the hotel itself to the significance of environmental sustainability is so important and far-reaching. The ends results of this dissertation will be not only play to understand the relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable and it also help more how to make sure the hotel industry is doing well on the environmental sustainability. Through the green marketing, a results on the actually of the relationship between green marketing and environmental sustainability will be more clearly. But this will either guide you to the agreement or disagreement to the improved green marketing concept model.

Literature Review

This part will be discussed about the concept of Green Marketing Mix which are Green Place, Green Product, Green price, and Green promotions. This Green marketing concept linked to the dependent variable of this study which is environment sustainability development that can be affected from the green marketing concepts in the hospitality industry that is hotel.

Green Marketing

The green awareness began in between of the 1960s and early 1970s with increasing concern about the negative impact of consumption pattern, impact of economic and population growth on the environment (Cohen, 2001).The first definition of ‘green marketing’ was according to Henion (1976); “the implementation of marketing programmes directed at the environmentally conscious market segment” (Banerjee, 1999, p.18). Green marketing practices generally promoted as the genuine concern for the nature of inputs as well as outputs waste reduction and the impact of these upon the environment and society as a whole both in present & future conditions (Walker and Hanson, 1998). In a sample way to say, green marketing is the strategy for hotel to turn themselves become green hotel and to achieve environmental sustainability development.

According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Refers on that statement, green marketing is a new marketing method driven by environmental sustainability. The sustainable development of environment is that modern consumers understand the deterioration of the environment has to their way of life and quality as a certain effect, the requirements of the process of production and sales of all enterprises minimal impact on the environment. The so-called green marketing refers to the enterprises to adapt to the trend of green consumption, from the protection of the environment against pollution and full use of resources point of view, through the development of products, the use of natural, turning waste into wealth and other measures, to meet consumer demand for green, enterprise marketing goals.

The green marketing has evolved over a period of time. According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green marketing has three chapters. First chapter was termed as “Ecological” green marketing, and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second chapter was “Environmental” green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of pollution and waste issues. Third chapter was “Sustainable” green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000. As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to utilize the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization’s objective. So green marketing cannot be avoided.

Main Elements of Green Marketing Mix

When hospitality industries start to do with eco-friendly, actually they try to access the new markets with the green marketing. Green marketing has 4 elements, the element called by green marketing mix. Marketing mix is adapted from conventional marketing, but nowadays hotel also adapts this marketing mix to hospitality industry. The concept of green marketing mix was introduced by Bradley (Bradley, 2007). Green marketing mix is about product or services that environmental friendly. These green marketing mixes are green product, green place, green price, and green promotion.

Element of Green Marketing Mix (Al-Bakry, 2007):

The green products: Green products are products that respond to environment needs and requirements. As the customer’s needs are necessary to improve and develop products, the customer needs in an environment more safe and healthy are also important and should be considered.

The green pricing: The green pricing refers to the price specified in the light of company’s policies with regard to environmental consideration imposed by rules and company instructions or its initiatives in this regard.

The green distribution: This is related to distribution gates use that deal with green products, which are appropriate for consumers, in terms of facilitating their delivery, and to secure cycling procedures conducting within environmental conditions and requirements.

The green promotion: This refers to providing real information about the products in a way that does not hurt the materialistic and moral consumer’s interests.

Green Products

The guest room is the main body of the hotel, is also the main products provided by the hotel to the guests. This requires the hotel from initial to final product design provide involved environmental behavior must accord with environmental protection requirement (Xiong, 2011) In addition, the hotel restaurant also provides and promoting the green food, the product must meet the physical quality and health standards green, product packaging, storage and transportation must according with standard of green food packaging storage.

Production of green products has become a part of the hotel’s purpose. Many hotel rooms putting in such a card, for example “If you do not need to replace the bed sheets, please put the card on the pillow,” most of foreign guest who living more than one days will do the information cards about changing bed sheet. For the local guest mostly they are not really know about. Two reasons why they didn’t do that are forget to place the card and as they know bed sheets should be change every day. These guests may think that I paid, no matter how many days I live, every item should be changed daily, many people asked that hotel implied green concept for save money. A hotel manager expressed, green marketing objective might be saving money, but this is not the main purpose. We just want to reduce waste, so the limited resources can play a greater role. Some replacement in the room is not necessary, such as towels and bed sheets, because if the guest use in one day only is not dirty.

Green Promotion

Hotel industries should focus on green cultural awareness training, to shape the cultural environment of green marketing. The promotions that related to green are the things when hotel promote about their hotel use the friendly materials and recycle materials. With the green promotion, hotel still need to stabilize the quality of product and service to attract the customer’s interest for continue the green promotion concept. “Green promotion strengthens company image.” (Chan, 2001), we included “I plan to switch to products and services that were advertised as being green.” Green promotions in hospitality industry also can take along about promotion to the guest, such as a voucher for laundry or food and beverages in the hotel. It means that customers no need to think about having a food outside the hotel. It can saves energy and reduce the gas pollution for the transportation.

Green promotion is to pass the green guidelines for media promotion of green consumption, inspiring guide to consumer demand for green, and finally with buying behavior (Anon, 2007). Three aspects of green promotion are green advertisement and green promotion itself.

Green advertising need to have green function positioning through the advertisement product to guide the consumers understand with the environmental friendly product. The green advertising should have a green atmosphere and appeals to stimulate the consumers desire to buy.

Green promoting have purpose to increase public awareness of green, green corporate image building, green marketing to build a broad social base, to promote the development of green marketing industry.

Green Price

In general, the input of green products on the market, production costs will be higher than similar conventional products, because the cost of green products in accrued expenses on environmentally friendly products. The use of new green materials can increase the cost of resources. Hence, green goods have higher initial out-of-pocket expenses but lower long-term costs (Rubik & Frankl, 2005). In other way, price increases will be temporary, with the development of science and technology and the increasing variety of environmental protection measures, the cost of production of green products will gradually decrease, and tend to be stable. At this time, the green product will be having a higher price, but it also benefits for the long term costs and productivity. In hotel industry, they will take the price higher than the normal products, but it will be make benefits for the customers in the every aspects.

The price is market sensitive pricing is an important marketing strategy; the implementation of green marketing cannot fail to study the formulation of the price of green products. In general, the input of green products in the market, production costs will be higher than similar conventional products, because the cost of green products in the accrued cost of the product environmentally friendly, including the following aspects:

In product development, because of increased or improve environmental protection function and pay for the development of the funds.

In the manufacturing, due to the development of the environment and human non-polluting, non-injury increased the cost of the process.

The use of new green materials and accessories may increase the cost of resources.

Management costs may increase due to the implementation of green marketing and selling expenses.

However, the price rise will be temporary, with the scientific and technological development and the improvement of various environmental protection measures, the manufacturing cost of green products will be gradually decreased, and tended to stabilize. To develop green products, prices, on the one hand, of course, should take into account the above factors, on the other hand should be noted that the income increase people’s awareness of environmental protection, consumer economic concept of an acceptable price consumer goods and consumption gradually The concept of phase coordination. Therefore, corporate marketing green products not only make the profitability of the business to better advantage in the peer competition

Green Place

Environmentally responsible or “green” marketing refers to the satisfaction of consumer needs, wants, and desires in conjunction with the preservation and conservation of the natural environment. Based on the location, green marketing can be applied. For this marketing mix, place or location is very affect the environment sustainable development. It depends how the hotel’s building with the environment because many hotel have not build the environmental awareness and damages the environment surrounding the area. The best place for the hotel for going green, they need to consider the environment. It is can damages the environment or disturbed their ecosystem of the place or not. Ecosystem in one area is very important for the whole place, because one of the ecosystem damages or broken it will affect or disturbing another ecosystem in surrounding area.

For building the hotel needs to be in the green design with the environment friendly products and have a proper placement for their product, so it can help the environment by giving a fresh air pollutant. Hotels also need the proper location, so it will not need many transports that can cause air pollutant. Hotel that will implement a green components in their hotel must be consider when choosing a place for develop their hotel. Hotel must be in the strategy place or area to reach from another place. It can decrease a using a transportation that is the number one that caused of air pollutant. Green place is about managing logistics to cut down on transportation emissions, thereby in effect aiming at reducing the carbon footprint. The choice of where and when is to make a product available will have significant impact on the customer.

Some other Elements

To build a green hotel culture and to establish the ecological values ​​of the hotel independent positive premise of the implementation of green management. Hotel green culture is not only reflected in the various aspects of green management, but also to its inherent cultural force reacts to the various aspects of green management.

To achieve a green hotel culture, we must ensure that the interests of the hotel staff to reach a balance. It will make the interests of the hotel and customer satisfaction to reach an agreement. For the hotel to continue and promote green management concepts and ecological values for staff is to encourage the environmental behavior of employees, increase green investment in management, thus forming the green culture of the hotel. Walk the road of eco-development; cultivate a green culture to rely on sustained advocacy to instill education and other activities. Thus making the hotel a green culture to penetrate into all the activities of the hotel, and has become a powerful driving force to promote the sustainable development of the hotel.

Provide green services, hotels in green products while also vigorously promoting green services on the one hand actively promoting green products. Such as food service recommended green food and beverages to the guests, so when the guest ordering is affordable, reasonable nutrition, resources are not wasted. On the other hand, actively carry out a green consulting service activities, and vigorously promote conducive to conserving resources, protecting the environment, consumption pattern, a healthy and civilized lifestyle, motivate consumers to conscious energy-saving, water conservation, and to engage in waste separation and recovery that.

In 1993, China began to implement environment mark plan, but the environment mark plan have not yet received most of public and government attention. At that time, some developed countries already apply the environmental marking system for the background of economic globalization. Environment mark becomes open international market green keys. As consumers, green consumption concept of recognition and the tendency of national policy, green products will be occupy a lot of investment in market segment. Environmental labeling is not only a means to influence the company’s consumer buying behavior should also be used as a measure of marketing, but many hotels are often ignored by consumers of green consumer psychology and paying enough attention.

Hotel marketing tool is not the introduction of a green way of thinking. Because many of the hotels we have not build environmental awareness and thus the marketing tools are still limited. For example, some hotels are not interested in the welfare of society, but the pursuit of “star effect” that can spend billions of dollars. Some of the hotel attracts customers to use a vulgar things causing spiritual pollution in market competition, not in quality.

Benefits of Green Marketing (Going Green)

Having an effective green marketing makes a lot of benefits for the hospitality industry. With the green marketing, it will help a lot in the protecting and maintaining the environment that nowadays the damages are increasing and become one of the important problems to help the environment.

Nowadays, hotel starts to make a green concept in every part of their operation. As the hotel which is one of the big industries in the world, hotel needs to consider about green marketing and take the benefits from this. The benefits of going green in the green marketing not only effects for the environment itself, but it also affect the employee and customer. There are so many reasons why hotels want to apply this green marketing, and most of all it’s because the hotel industry wants to be viewed positively by the consumers. Green marketing also refers to the satisfaction of consumer wants, needs, and satisfaction with the conservation of natural environment.

The most important things to applying the green marketing are protecting this living space, because the damages are too big. In this, we need to save the environment with using less for water consumption, energy consumption and reduce the air pollutant. These are all the benefits for the environment and protect for the future generation for this living space.

The concept of green marketing can makes a new concept of consumers in hospitality industry, because of with the new concept of the friendly environment it will be make a differences. Consumers will feel the new thing about the new products that hotel gives. According to Patrick Hartmann and Vanessa Ibanez, if the brand considered green, then consumer willing to pay more for that product (2006).

The long term costs are one consideration why hotel need to do green marketing. Green goods have higher initial out-of-pocket expenses but lower long-term costs (Rubik & Frankl, 2005). For the new changes in green marketing concept need to have a lot of costs for the product, promotion, and images, but as the time goes by