Introduction
Climatic changes in the world have led to environmental consciousness. Impact of environmental degradation is real as various observable impacts can be witnessed. As a result of environmental changes, a group of people who are concerned of environmental issues has come up. The main concern of this group, referring itself as green, is to ensure a sustainable world. Green revolution is observed in all parts of the economy. Concerning the environmental effect of fossil fuels, various developments such as bio fuels have emerged.
Greens revolution is a major concern in the hospitality industry. With increase in environment consciousness, some customers demand for environmentally friendly services and facilities. Hotel and tourism result to various environmental impacts. Some materials used in hotel industry have environmental impact while discharges may have negative effect to the environment. In tourism, some certain activities have negative effects on the environment.
Increase in environment conscious clients in hospitality industry leave investors in hospitality industry with no choice but consider environment issues that affect the industry. Green hotels and ecotourism are the image of green revolution in hospitality industry. The main concern for green hotel and ecotourism is to implement environment consciousness in all their services.
The hospitality industry is a major industry in France. In Europe, France has been a main player in hotel and tourism. Although there are other new tourist destinations, France continues to be one of the most preferred destinations not only in Europe but also in other parts of the world. As a major player in hospitality industry, impact of green revolution in hospitality industry is likely to have a major impact in France. This paper is a literature review on green development in hospitality industry. The paper will review literature on green revolution in various aspects of hospitality industry such as hotel and tourism.
The literature review will look into the motivation towards green revolution, short-term and long term impact of green revolution, customer demands and future trend of hospitality industry as a result of green revolution. Green revolution has been a subject of interest to many researchers and scholars in the recent past. The literature review will make use available materials, information and data to give insight into trend of green revolution in hospitality industry in France.
Literature Review
Global Environmental concerns
The world has experienced consistent environmental degradation. The environmental degradation result from unsustainable use of natural resource, release of environment pollutants in the environment and strain on natural resources due to consistent population growth. Goudie says that environmental changes occur gradually that the effects are only observed after a long time. Environmental changes in the world today are a result of low environment consciousness among the people. One of the main causes of environment degradation, according to Goudie, is usage of fossil fuel as the main source of fuel (Goudie, 1992, p.31).
Environmental degradation in the world has led to changes in various aspects of environment. Some of the most explicit changes in environment, according to Goudie, are changes in rainfalls, decrease in snow coverage and rise in temperatures. Goudie observes that increase in irregular weather patterns in the world and extreme weather conditions as some of the evidence of effects of environmental degradation (Goudie, 1992, p.31).
Extremely cold winters, warmer summers, storms and droughts in some countries is a clear evidence of environmental degradation. Environmental changes affect every aspect of life. The change in weather pattern demand that people should adjust to fit in environment. Goudie gives an example of effect of environmental changes to availability of food substances and eating habit. According to Goudie, increases of toxic substance in water bodies, environmental changes and overfishing has resulted to reduction of fish. The consistent environment degradation, according to Goudie is a threat to human existences. As a solution, he calls for increase in research on environmentally friendly practices and sustainable use of natural resources.
Global warming has been a major topic in the media. Silver defines global warming as increase in global temperatures. Global warming, according to Silver is the main cause of environmental changes that are evident in the world today (Silver, 2008, p. 76). Releases of greenhouse gases to the environment lead to increase in global temperatures. Continuous use of fossil fuel, according to Silver is a major threat to environment.
Carbon dioxide released from petroleum fuel raises the percentage of the Carbon Dioxide gas in the environment, leading to greenhouse effect. According to Larry west, carbon dioxide is an essential gas to environment but excess release of the gas becomes an environmental hazard (West, 2009, par 6). According to him, the negative effects of global warming occur when human activity increases the release of greenhouse gases beyond the level where nature can regulate. Some of the identified causes of global warming are burning of some type of fuels, industrialization, deforestation, and population growth.
The rate of increase of global temperatures is currently high. As the effects of global warming threat the existence of the world, there has been increase in environmental consciousness among the people. Global warming has severe effects on the environment. According to Goudie, global warming has both long term and short term effects. Some of the short-term effects observed were slight warming up of weather. On the other hand, the long-term effects were disappearance of snow, rise in sea level, increase in disease, drought, storms and other severe weather conditions. According to Larry West, it is the responsibility of everyone to play a role in preventing global warming (West, 2009, par 6).
Environmental campaigns have succeeded in motivating various innovations in environmentally friendly practices. Innovation in sustainable source of fuel, green buildings, and environmentally friendly policies, according to Silver, are good steps toward controlling global warming.
Environment Effects of Hospitality Industry
Like any other area of economy, hospitality industry has various effects to the environment. The impacts to environment result from the materials used in hotel, discharges and tourism activities. According to Kasim and Scarkat, hospitality industry ought to be responsible of the environmental impacts of their activities. They site the various chemical substances used in hospitality industry as some of the area where hospitality contribute to environmental degradation (Kasim & Scarkat, 2007, p. 75). As corporate responsibility to working environment, investors in hospitality industry ought to make efforts to ensure sustainable environment as well as prevent negative impact to the environment.
Impact of hospitality industry in global economy is large. Tourism is an important economic activity in various parts of the world. According to World Travel and tourism council, Tourism is a major economic activity to be ignored by any government. According to available data on tourism, in 2000 tourism industry contributed more than fifteen percentage of all employment in the world addition, tourism generated revenue worth more than two million US dollars (Kasim & Scarkat, 2007, p. 67).
Besides, according to world travel and Tourism, Tourism is in consistent growth. Faulkner warns that, as Tourism industry continues to grow; the effect of the Industry to environment will continue to increase (Faulkner & Laws, 2000, p.124). The trend of tourism growth indicates that the growth has shifted from well known tourism destination to other areas such as East Asian and Pacific regions. World Tourism Organization estimates that tourism industry will have an average growth of more than four percent. According to Kasim, with the consistent growth in tourism industry the environmental impact of tourism will be very huge.
Wide spread rapid growth of hospitality industry brings about questions on its pressure on natural resources and negative effects to the environment (Faulkner & Laws, 2000, p.98). Tourism, by nature relies more on environment for its sustainability. According to Hassan, destruction of environment can have very severe effect on tourism but at the same time tourism contribute significantly to environmental changes (Hassan, 2000, p. 34).
Hospitality industry offers services that interact highly with natural resources. According to Hassan, the high demand on natural resources that result from tourism industry calls for hospitality industry to be more responsible to the environment. Due to demand on natural resources, tourism activities can initiate various changes on physical environment. On the other hand, the hospitality industry also has various demands on natural resources and also releases substances that can lead to negative effects to the environment (Faulkner & Laws, 2000, p.98).
Wahab and Pigram give an example of where tourism motivates destruction on physical environment through its demand for secluded and scenic accommodation (Wahab & Pigram, 1997, p17). Tourism has high demand for transportation. As the tourist travel from one area to another, fossil fuel is used in one way or the other. According to Wahab, the high demand for transportation in tourism industry contributes significantly to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Tourism and holiday activities contribute significantly to the emission of greenhouse gasses. According to report from Commission on Sustainable Development forum held in 1998 in Germany, energy used up in tourism constitutes more than ninety percent of all energy used up in holiday. According to the forum, the energy is used up as tourists arrive for holiday destination and also in other travels related to tourism. Apart from pressure on natural resources, the emissions that result from transporting tourists constitute a big share of tourism effect to natural resources (Klak & Flynn, 2008, p 67). In particular, tourism contributes highly on air travels. Although new development in air travel has allowed aircrafts that consume less energy, the increase in air travels have contributed highly to greenhouse gases.
Tourism depends highly on environment. According to Scarkat and Kasim, the future of hospitality industry depends highly on the ability of investors in the industry to protect the resources that they require. This protection includes minimizing negative effects on environment that result from hospitality industry, investing on environmentally friendly initiatives and ability to ensure sustainability in all areas (Kasim & Scarkat, 2007, p. 81).
Environmental degradation is a threat to tourism industry in the future. According to Kasim, quality of tourism will be highly affected when environment is destroyed and lose its aesthetic quality. At the same time quality of services offered in hotels will be lowered when essential commodities are unavailable due to environmental degradation.
Mitigating effects of hospitality industry to environment is the sure way of ensuring continuity. Efforts to mitigate effects of hospitality industry to the environment have not been a priority (Payne & Raiborn, 2001, p. 126). According to McLaren, investors in hospitality industry had poor attitude towards mitigating environmental effects until late 1980’s. According to Kasim and Scarkat, lack of initiative in mitigation efforts has been contributed by a perception that tourism and holiday industry do not require specific planning. They give an example where investors in the industry fail of invest some of revenue obtained in environment conservation programs.
Sustainability in Hospitality industry
Sustainability is a relatively new term. The term first emerged in 1970 as a reaction to diminishing natural resources. Sustainable development became fully entrenched into vocabulary as a result of World commission of Environment and Development (WCED). According to the commission, sustainable development entails a development that meets the needs of the people in present but as well takes into consideration of the future needs of the future generation. Sustainability ensures that that the resources are used responsibly so as the need of the present and future generations are met with considerable ease (Brundtland, 1987, p. 34).
Sustainability came about as a result of the realization that natural resources were declining in a high rate that could compromise the ability of both the present and future generations to meet their needs. According to Payne and Raiborn, sustainability takes three major aspects: social, economic and environmental (Payne & Raiborn, 2001, p. 143). Social sustainability is sustainability that ensures equitable achievement of social services such as health, political aspect and gender issues. Sustainable economy is an economy that ensures continuous production of products and services for the benefit of both the present and future generations. Sustainable environment, on the other hand entails an environment that ensures stability in natural resources.
Although major international bodies such as United Nations and World Bank have endorsed the concept of sustainable development, the meaning of the phrase is not very clear. The overuse of the term in different areas has led to the term losing its original meaning as conceived in 1970’s. According to Daly, the term is overused in different areas that the term is in danger of losing its meaning (Daly, 1990. P.2).
There is danger that the people who use the term may fail to realize the meaning of the term and hence fail to achieve its intended meaning. As World Bank’s World Development Report 2003 observe, the definition of Sustainable Development given by Brundtland Commission lack clarity. Although the definition emphasizes the ability to meet both the present and future needs, it fails to offer a clear definition of what is meant by needs (Brundtland, 1987, p. 147). Although the definition of sustainable development may not be clear, the concept of sustainability is important.
Hospitality industry is a major economic activity in many countries. In 2008, the industry raises more than $950 billion revenue, one of the highest revenue from a single sector. Although the recent economic recession has a severe effect on tourism, tourism is expected to have an upward growth trend in the future (Tiller, 2009, par 4). Due to its economic potential, many countries invest highly on tourism with; aim of attracting high revenues.
According to Sharpley, the high demand of tourism on natural resource has led to considerable effect on environment. Tourism leads to high demand for accommodation, transport and sceneries, which have direct or indirect effects on environment (Sharpley, 2009, p. 15). Tourism leads to direct demand for tourism destination but as well contribute to other indirect activities such as construction of accommodations required by tourism.
In most cases tourism development is based on naturally existing attractions. Some of natural attractions that are popular to tourist and holiday makers include beaches, wilderness areas and heritage. According to Sharpley, the natural attractions are scarce and susceptible to overexploitation. Due to low start-up resources needed on natural attractions, there is high likelihood for the resources to be overexploited. The low start-up resources needed on tourism industry, according to Sharpley, has led to many governments opting to invest in the industry other than other industries (Sharpley, 2009, p. 17).
Investment in tourism calls for more resource to be invested in the area. According to Sharpley investment in tourism compete with investment in other areas such as farming. In addition, tourism competes for natural resources with other areas such as agriculture. Due to high returns from tourism, many government tend to give tourism a priority other economic activities.
Ecotourism
The effect of tourism on environment is a major concern for environmentalists, governments and investors within this sector. Ecotourism is used to refer to sustainable tourism. The term was developed in 1988 to refer to a practice in tourism that took into consideration of future needs of tourism. According to International Ecotourism Society, ecotourism is defined travel to natural area that show respect to natural resources and people that inhabit the natural area. According to Honey, the term developed as a concern for the effects to natural areas that resulted from tourism activities (Honey, 2008, par 6).
With realization of the effects that tourism had on environment and social cultural aspects of local people, ecotourism was viewed as an alternative that would reduce the effects and ensure sustainability. As an alternative to other forms of tourism that has negative effects to ecological and social aspects of tourism destination, ecotourism aim at not only reduce negative cultural and environment effects, but also contribute to conservation of tourism resource and contribute to development of communities that live in the areas (Honey, 2008, par.11).
Usage of the term ecotourism in tourism industry sometime lacks consistency. The inconsistency in use of the term can dilute the meaning of ecotourism and its significance in the industry. According to Sue Beeton, sometimes the term is used as an advertisement tool other than for its intended purpose. In this case some tourism companies use term to attract customers but fail to offer environmentally friendly services as implied by the term (Beeton, 1998, p.2).
Sue gives an example of where some tour operators in Costa Rica use a practice referred to as greenwashing as a marketing tool for their services. Another example of misuse of ecotourism is that of Iranian company that claimed to construct a green luxury in Costa Rica. According to Sue, the company claimed to construct an environmentally friendly resort as a marketing strategy but failed to adhere to its promise. Public protest after the claims were realized to be misleading succeeded in stopping the construction.
Ambiguity in the use of the term ecotourism is highly due to the term being mistaken for nature tourism. Ecotourism is sometimes wrongly used as synonymous to nature, adventure and wildlife tourism. Although these form of tourism also require travelling, Honey claims that a distinction between the forms of tourism should be developed. Honey succeeds in showing that ecotourism is significantly different from nature tourism.
Ecotourism differs substantially from nature tourism by its objects as well as implication. When nature tourism involves travel to pristine areas to enjoy nature, ecotourism involves tourism activities that are friendly to the environment. Nature tourism activities such as hiking, biking have relatively low effect to the environment. Although nature tourism has low effect on environment, uncontrolled nature tourism can as well lead to environmental effects.
Despite of the ambiguity in the use of ecotourism, ecotourism is considerably different from nature tourism. According to Honey, ecotourism is concerned more with what a tourists do other than what they seek in their travel. The main focus, thus in the effects that result from tourists activities in tourism destinations. Ecotourism call for responsible conduct in travelers and also to other individuals involved in tourism industry. According to Klak and Flynn, ecotourism gives priority to conserving environment, ensuring low-activities in natural context, ensuring good interaction between visitors and locals and ensuring that local people benefit from tourism activities (Klak and Flynn 2008).
Ecotourism can be viewed in different perspectives. According to Honey, ecotourism can be divided into two: lite ecotourism and sound ecotourism. According to her sound ecotourism entails the objectives and qualities of ecotourism, while lite ecotourism entails the minor measures such as using less essential substances to preserve environment (Honey, 2008, p 451). According to Honey, the minor measures are what most investors in tourism industry market as ecotourism while ignoring on major issues. Green tourism, according to Honey should involve more than minor environmentally friendly activities but core issues that have severe effects on the environment.
Majority of what is claimed to be ecotourism belongs to the category of lite ecotourism. According to Flynn, increase of tourism companies that fail to offer sound ecotourism is a result of problems in defining ecotourism (Klak & Flynn, 2008, p 163). The lack of consistent definition of tourism leads to some players in the industry using ecotourism as a marketing tool while failing to adhere to principles of ecotourism. Despite of ecotourism being used as a marketing tool by some investors, many scholars agree that sound ecotourism has substantial effects on environmental conservation.
Concept of ecotourism was developed as a way to ensure that there was harmony between environment and tourism activities. According to Sharpley, the foundation of ecotourism lay on developing alternative tourism activities that ensured environmental sustainability and represented a paradigm shift to alternative tourism (Sharpley, 2009, p. 48). According to him the aim was to link economic sustainability of tourism to sustainable environment.
Environmental Sustainability in the Hotel Industry
Environmental sustainability is a major issue in hospitality industry. According to Darren, global environmental concerns in past twenty years have increased awareness on environmental issues (Tiller, 2009, par 1). According to him, many people are aware of such terms as greenhouse effect, Ozone depletion, global warming and acid rains. Due to this awareness and concern for ensuring good environment, many people have undertaken measure at individual level with aim for conserving the environment. According Darren Tiller, some people are concerned of the materials that they use, amount of fuel they use per day and even of the places that they seek various services. As people become more area of environmental effects of various businesses, the contribution of hotel industry to environmental effects is becoming apparent.
According to Darren, due to its nature, hotel industry leads to consumption of many materials and energy (Tiller, 2009, par 8). The quantity of non-durable product, water and other materials used in hotel industry is capable of having significant effect on the environment. According to Klak, the environmental effects of non-durable products and energy used in hotel industry are far higher than the effects of constructing the infrastructures. According to Darren, although hospitality industry does not contribute to gross pollution of t environment, the products and energy used in the industry have significant effects to the environment. The amount of products used in hospitality industry, due to the high number of customer, leads to environmental effects of hotels being higher than those of other buildings.
Awareness on effects on environment has affected customers taste and expectation. According to a research TUI, there have been significant changes in customers’ expectations and values. The research showed that environmental concerns have a significant influence on what customers regard as quality products. According to Darren, environmental quality is a major concern for holiday makers. According to Honey, tourism and hospitality industry is under high pressure to adopt environmentally friendly services. The pressure on hospitality industry to adopt environmentally friendly measures does not evolve from customer taste alone but also from increased environmental regulation. According to Darren, management in hospitality industry has to balance between ethics, customer satisfaction and need for aesthetics.
Concern for environmentally friendly services is on increases in hospitality industry. Environmental concerns mostly come second to other concerns such as costs and aesthetics. According to Darren, the economic recession has made hospitality operators be concerned of lowering cost other than investing in other issues. According to him, major hotels such as Inter-continental, Hilton and Ramada has set their standards for environmental concerns to meet customers’ environmental concerns as well as ensure profitability. According to a research, Being Green in hospitality industry scores highly in customer relation.
Sustainable development and customer satisfaction
Environmental concern is an important issue in customer satisfaction in hospitality industry. The idea of getting green is not fully accepted in hospitality industry. According to Audi, some see getting green as a customer relation tactics while other see getting green in the perspective of its contribution to environmental conservation. According to Scarkat, some investors in hospitality industry sell the idea of getting green but fail to implement measure that has significant contribution to environmental conservation (Kasim & Scarkat, 2007, p. 223).
The author gives an example of cleaning products that are advertised as green but have little contribution to environmental conservation. Kendra Walker of Hilton Hotel says that the reason why there are discrepancies in implementing the idea of getting green is that the ideas are in discovery stage in hospitality industry. According to him the new idea is being accepted in hospitality Industry with most hotels offering environmentally friendly services.
As some investors in hospitality industry sell the idea of getting green as a marketing tool, there those that are concerned of environmental effect. According to Audi, there is increase in customer demand for environmentally friendly services. The main concern for these kinds of customers is not only enjoying services from a hotel but also ensuring that by enjoying the services offered, they do not contribute to environmental degradation. Some hotels have taken major steps to ensure that they offer environmentally friendly services (Tiller, 2009, par 6).
According Darren, customer demand for environmentally friendly service has led to green certification on hospitality industry. Green certification has become a factor that environmental concerned customers look before choosing a hotel or a lodge. For example, Starwood or Marriott have secured green certification for some of its hotels with aim of meeting customer demand for environmentally friendly services (Audi, 2007, p89). In consequence to this, Marriot has also required its suppliers to ensure that the products they supply to its customer are environmentally friendly.
Methodology
Research plan
Environmental concerns have become a major issue in hospitality industry. The trend in demand for environmentally friendly services by customers and increase in environmental regulations will have significant effect on image of hospitality in the future. France is a major player in hospitality industry; any development in hospitality industry will have significant effect to the industry in France. The future trend green development in hospitality industry is highly depended on customer taste for green product and the ability of hospitality industry to satisfy the customer demands.
The strategy of the research will be to obtain data from hospitality industry in France, and analyses the data to obtain the level of customer satisfaction. 500 participants per brand will be used for the research. The main research question will be how the players in hospitality industry satisfy environmental concerns of their customers. The data will be obtained from Luxury chains with rating of four stars and above. Four star and above luxury chains are chosen because they constitute the main determinant of trend in hospitality industry. The information obtained from this category of hotels will represent the popular opinion on environmental concerns in hospitality industry.
Data obtained for the research will be from customer satisfaction surveys. One to one interviews, formal and informal interview, and questionnaires. The target respondents are customers in four stars and above hotels. Response will be obtained from customers with knowledge of sustainable development as well as those that are not aware of sustainable development. Response will also be obtained from workers in the luxury chains. Response will be obtained from both workers in managerial position and those in subordinate positions. In addition, various green standards used in the hotels under study will be analysed. For this analysis, the Saunders et al.’s Research Methods for Business students will be used.
Customers from various luxury chains in France will be targeted to ensure that that information obtained represent the general opinion of majority of customers. Since some hotels already have green certification while other do not, the research will seek to know whether environmental concerns play a role in choice of hotels. Other parameters such as prices will also be considered to clarify whether prices or environmental concerns are involved in choice of a hotel. Information the willingness of customers to forgo some luxury for environmental concerns and their willingness to pay more for environmentally friendly services will be obtained. This will help to evaluate the future trend green development.
Respondent at different levels has different opinion over a research topic. The opinion of customers on environmental issues may differ substantially from the opinion held by employees and investors in hospitality industry. The opinion customers at different levels will be essential. The opinions of first time visitors to a hotel and those of regular customers may be different. For a good research, the difference in these opinions will be essential to the final result.
On the other hand there could be difference between the opinions of individuals in managerial position and those in subordinate position. Workers in subordinate positions have direct contact with customers and are more likely to be aware of customer demands. Individuals in managerial position, on the other hands have broad view of customer taste, preference and satisfaction in an individual station or a hospitality company. Opinions from both individual in managerial position and those in subordinate positions will be compared.
Design and development of the data collection methods
Primary data will be obtained using both questionnaires and in interviews. Questionnaires will be given to customers as they leave a hotel or sent to customers in guest list after they have left the hotels. Questionnaires targeting the customers will be different from those to be used on hotel workers. The questions on these questionnaires will reflect the kind of information that is required from the target research group. Questionnaires will be the main method of collecting primary data while interviews will be used to supplement questionnaires.
Since the research aims to obtain the level of customer satisfaction in hotels that provide “green services”, the questions in questionnaires targeting the customer will aim at obtaining their opinion on the issue. The questions will include who frequently the customers visit a certain hotel, the reason for choosing a certain hotel other that others, other hotels where the customer visit, the likelihood of a customer to return to a certain hotel, their awareness of “green” services, the probability of a customer returning to a certain hotel after green procedure are implemented and their general level of satisfaction. For the level of satisfaction, a five point scale will be used. A respondent will choose a scale value of five for highest level of satisfaction while a scale of one will be chosen for unsatisfactory serviced.
Both closed and open questions will be used in questionnaires. Closed questions will be used to limit the range of responses from a respondent. This will enable consistency in filling the questionnaires while ensuring that filling the questionnaires will be as easy as possible. Open questions will also be used. Open questions will be used on questions that do not have an obvious answer as well as questions that represent independent opinion of a respondent.
The number of open question will be kept as low as possible to avoid complication while analysing the data obtained. In both the closed and open questions, the questions will be made as simple as possible to ensure that there questions are answered with ease. In addition, the questionnaires will be made as short as possible. Since customers may be involved in many other issues, short questionnaire will be used to motivate many customers to participate. Since hotels in France host customers from different parts of the world, the questionnaires will be provided in all major languages.
Interviews in form of personal interview and telephone interview will be used to supplement questionnaires in collecting primary data. Information for interviews will be important in comparing with information from questionnaires as well as assist in data analysis (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 78).
Interview will be arranged for a number of customers on luxury chains as a well as a few of those that have left hotel. Interview will also be used with individuals in managerial positions and some of those in subordinate positions. Both closed and open questions will be used in the interviews. Open questions will be used to obtain broad opinion of participants while closed questions will be used to control the flow of the interviews. Interviews will allow follow-up questions to be used in obtaining information.
Suitability of research methods
Questionnaires are chosen as the main method for collecting data. Questionnaires will offer various advantages to the research. For a research with large number of participants, use of questionnaires is preferred for cutting cost while achieving the research objective. Questionnaires will be the most convenient method for collecting primary data from customers in luxury chains. Although some may be willing to participate in the research, some may view participation as a bother. With questionnaires, the participants will be allowed to carry the questionnaire with them, fill the questionnaires and then drop them at suitable collection point (Mertens, 2005, p. 65).
The ability of participants to carry the questionnaires with them will allow them to respond to the questionnaires at their free time. Use of semi-structured questionnaires makes it possible to more information to be answered while use of a five point scale will offer the general level of satisfaction. Questionnaires will also allow for quantitative data analysis methods to be used. The disadvantage of using questionnaires in this research is that participants will not be able to clarify on questions that they do not understand. To overcome this shortfall, simple straight forward questions will be used in the questionnaires.
Interviews will offer various advantages to the research. Interviews will be used on a few customers, workers and management. Interviews will offer the interviewer opportunity to clarify response from participant as well and observe nonverbal response (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p.103). Follow up questions will be very useful in the interviews. For participants that cannot be reached, telephone interviews will be used. This will allow the interviewer to acquire opinion of participant that cannot be reached at low cost and considerable convenience.
Conclusion
Environmental concerns among customers in hospitality industry are on the increase. As observed from literature review, there is a trend of “getting green” in hospitality industry. As some hospitality operators offer “green services” for environmental concerns, others do so for marketing. Since France is a major player in hospitality industry, the trend of “getting green” will have a significant effect to the industry. Customer satisfaction in green products is a major concern in hospitality industry. The research will seek to find out the level of customer satisfaction in green products in luxury chain in France.
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