Abstract:
The purpose of the study is to examine how customer interest and participation in
environmental sustainability activities influence the uptake of sustainability initiatives by
hotels in Ghana. The study was a descriptive survey research and employed the
quantitative approach to research for the purposes of data collection and analysis. The
sample was made up of 219 respondents comprising one key hotel staff responsible for
sustainability issues, and two hotel guests selected from the 73 sampled hotels.
Questionnaire was employed as the main instrument of data collection and data were
analysed using means and standard deviation which was facilitated by SPSS (version 26).
The findings show that the environmental sustainability initiatives undertaken by hotels
in Accra focus mainly on water conservation, energy conservation, waste management
and control, and cost reduction. Also, the results show that guests who engaged in
sustainability activities at home tend to show more interest in the sustainability
programmes of hotels when they lodge in a hotel. Besides, the guests had their own
expectations and views about the nature of sustainability initiatives that hotels should
engage in. Among the expectations were that, hotels must be concerned about how their
operations affect the environment, majority of the respondents agreed that hotels should
engage in recycling and reuse of products were necessary, hotels should help with
conserving water, energy, and natural resources, Moreover, it was found that
management of hotels are influenced to pursue sustainability programmes when they
receive positive responses from hotel guests with regard their level of compliance with
sustainability policies and regulations of the hotels, customers willingness to pay a price
premium for green hotels, and growing customer demand for sustainability practices by
hotels. It was deduced from the findings that while some hotels voluntarily undertake
sustainability initiatives as a way of contributing to the global sustainability agenda, the
uptake of sustainability initiatives by majority of hotels in Accra is mostly influenced by
customer interest and level of participation in sustainability activities. It is recommended
that customer interests and expectations of the nature of sustainability practices hotels,
should be taken into consideration by hotels when designing their sustainability
programmes.
Description:
A Thesis in the Department of HOSPITALITY and TOURISM EDUCATION,
Faculty of VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, submitted to the School of Graduate
Studies, University of Education, Winneba, in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the Award of the Master of Philosophy (Hospitality
Management) degree
DECEMBER, 2020