engleski

Attitudes towards environmental responsibility among Swedish, Polish and Croatian hoteliers

The first step in creating a more environmentally sound hotel industry should be a performance analysis of the hotel sector from an environmental perspective. An assessment measuring the level of environmental awareness among hoteliers and their willingness/ability to exercise corporate environmental responsibility should be performed in order to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of a hotel-environment relationship. A survey questionnaire was developed based on a comprehensive literature review, and questionnaires were prepared in Swedish, Polish and Croatian. The survey was performed in the Autumn of 2002 and Spring/Summer of 2003. A total of 1923 hotels were targeted, 946 in Sweden (from an existing total of 1550), 942 hotels in Poland (966), and 35 in Croatia (410), representing 61%, 97.5% and 27.1%, respectively, of the existing stock in the region. Three hundred seventy nine (379) correctly and completely filled-in forms were collected, accounting for an effective response rate of 25.5% for Sweden (225 forms), 16.5% for Poland (124 forms), and 85.7% for Croatia (30 forms). In the Swedish and Polish samples the effective response rate was determined after excluding facilities with invalid e-mail addresses. The majority of respondents, 69.5% in Poland, 73.3% in Croatia, and 87.6% in Sweden, believed that environmental impacts caused by hotels are moderate to significant. Swedish hoteliers were generally found to have a higher environmental awareness, comprehensive knowledge relevant to environmental protection, and well-established pro-ecological programs and initiatives. Polish hoteliers are at the stage of recognizing the importance of the environment and initiating various activities. However, since the national level of environmental education is relatively low, most actions undertaken by Polish hoteliers are aimed at achieving immediate economic benefits, or those required by law. It is reasonable to conclude that Polish incentives are primarily economically motivated, while any environmental benefits achieved are seen as an extra bonus. Croatian hoteliers generally seem to have a high level of environmental knowledge and concern for environmental issues. However, among the three countries investigated, concrete pro-ecological initiatives were found to be least likely implemented in Croatia. This may in part be due to the very recent revival of the Croatian tourism industry, following regional political and economic difficulties in the 1990s. It is reasonable to expect the situation in Croatia to improve as the industry continues to regain momentum.

hotels; environmental responsibility; environmental awareness

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