Abstract
The aim of this article is to explore tourists’ perceptions about green initiatives in eco-friendly hotels. The research sample was randomly chosen among domestic and international tourists staying in green certified hotels in Turkey. A single page questionnaire was conducted with tourists in the period of June - December 2012. In addition to questions related to demographic profile of tourists, perception of tourists about green practices of hotels that are determined in the certification category of Turkey was searched. The findings indicate that tourists are more concerned with tangible things when assessing green practices in hotels. The results reveal that while pleasant landscape design, the compatibility of the hotel’s architectural design with the natural environment, and energy-saving room keys are the three most highly ranked items; encouraging guests to use public transportation, preferring non-packaged goods, and informing guests about biological diversity around the hotel are given the lowest ranking as green initiatives. On the other hand, three factors (energy- and water-saving measures and informational efforts, visual and external environmental practices, and guestroom-related initiatives and recycling programmes) were extracted from the factor analysis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 9-26 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Tourism Challenges and Trends |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jun 2014 |
Keywords
- sustainable tourism
- green practices
- tourist perception
- eco-friendly hotels
- Turkey
