Is there a Benefit from being Green? Assessing Benefits from Marketing Sustainability by North American Hotels

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to determine if green hotels actually benefited from undertaking environmental practices and integrating these practices into their marketing strategy. After looking at sustainable communications and marketing literature, a total of 2,248 structured surveys were administered to hotels across North America. Responses from 247 hotels (11% response rate) were analyzed using frequencies, t-tests, and regression analysis to examine significant differences. The results show that the extent to which hotels perceive they benefitted from marketing sustainability practices through guest visits, guest length of stay, guest satisfaction, revenue, profit, and average daily rate can be predicted by examining the extent to which a hotel believes that green marketing has been incorporated into a hotels green marketing strategy. Findings also show that hotels that are a part of the Green Key certification program have a higher perceived probability of attracting new customers and retaining old ones.This study provides support that there is a benefit to sustainability marketing and this study is the first to examine how perceived hotel sustainability management and marketing inform one another and could be beneficial to hotels in how they utilize this information to inform marketing decisions.

A Description of Green Hotel Practices and Their Role in Achieving Sustainable Development

“…Consequently, many hotels have begun implementing various innovative practices to increase the "greenness" of their operations in order to eliminate their environmental pressure in addition to responding to growing customer environmental concerns [38,39]. The growth of customers' attention towards environmental sustainability has encouraged hoteliers to transform their businesses by implementing green practices in their operations which help them in achieving a competitive advantage and increasing their market share through acquiring guest segments that are concerned with green sustainability [40,41].…”

Investigating Sustainable Practices in Hotel Industry-from Employees’ Perspective: Evidence from a Mediterranean Island

“…Nevertheless, there has been a growing concern for sustainability and green products among the consumers worldwide and the concern has also been growing among the tourists to demand green services and practices in the hospitality industry [36,[63][64][65]. Travelers have also played an important role in the flourishment of alternative tourism that has sprung up in the global tourism arena in the forms of eco-village, eco-lodge, farm tourism, agri-tourism, and nature-based tourism, just to name a few [66,67].…”

The Influence of Green Message Types on Advertising Effectiveness for Luxury and Budget Hotel Segments

“…Second, green advertising effectiveness was not tested for low- and high-end product classes. The study has used both budget and luxury hotel context in the ads as customers would associate green initiatives with cost savings and as a compromise on luxury in the hotel industry (Dodds & Holmes, 2016; Tzschentke et al, 2008). Third, very limited studies have assessed the impact of ecolabel or green seal on advertising persuasion and trust (Atkinson & Rosenthal, 2014; Bickart & Ruth, 2012).…”