This document summarizes a study on assessing the environmental performance of hotels in Accra, Ghana. It includes the objectives, hypotheses, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusions of the study. The study found that larger and upscale hotels had better environmental performance than smaller hotels. It was also found that the size and class of a hotel best predict its environmental performance. The document recommends improvements like encouraging voluntary environmental programs, education, green development practices, and a shift to waste reduction and recycling.

1. by
Ishmael Mensah
Department of Hospitality & Tourism
Management
University of Cape Coast.

2. • Background
• Problem statement
• Objectives
• Hypotheses
• Literature review
• Conceptual framework
• Methodology
• Major findings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations

3. • Environmental issues occupy a centre-stage in
global affairs.
• Hotel facilities generate waste and consume large
amounts of natural resources.
• Calls for sustainable tourism practices because
tourism could be self destructive.
• ‘Sustainable hotels lead to sustainable destinations’
(WCST, 1995, Lazarote, Spain; SHSD International
Conference, Maspalomas, Canary Islands in
October 2000).
• Rise in green consumerism and tourists increasingly
becoming concerned about the environment of
destinations.

4. • There has been an upsurge in environmental
programmes and initiatives by the hotel industry
in the developed world.
• The number of registered hotels in has been
growing steadily and there are concerns about
their environmental impacts.
• Not much research work has been done on
environmental performance of the hotel industry
in Sub-Saharan Africa including Ghana.
• Studies have been on environmental
management and not environmental
performance.
• Studies on environmental management in hotels
have focused on the supply side.

5. The main objective of this study is to assess the
environmental performance of hotels in Accra.
The specific objectives are to;
• Determine stakeholders’ perception of the
environmental performance of hotels;
• Ascertain hotel managers’ attitude towards
environmental management in hotels;
• Examine international tourists’ environmental
attitude and behaviour and the implications
for environmental management by the hotels;
• Assess the factors that influence
environmental performance of hotels.

6. • H1: Hotel organizational
characteristics have no positive effect
on environmental performance.
• H2 : Socio-demographic characteristics
of hotel manager have no positive
effect on environmental performance.
• H3: There is no significant difference in
environmental performance among
different classes of hotels.

7. • Larger and better quality hotels are more proactive or more
committed to environmental management (Mawforth and
Munt 1998; Edwards, 2000; Alvarez Gil et al, 2001).
• The environmental performance of hotels depends on the
hotel manager’s or owner’s attitude (Bohdanowicz, 2005;
Erdogan and Baris, 2007).
• Very little empirical research has been conducted to
determine if the socio-demographic characteristics of hotel
managers could influence the environmental performance of
their hotels.
• Hotel guests are also prepared to pay extra to stay in hotels
that are environmental-conscious (Arias et al, 2003; Masau
and Prideaux, 2003; Han et al, 2009).
• Very few attempts to look at hotel guests’ attitude towards
environmental management practices of the hotel industry.

8. ANTECEDENTS MODERATORS CONSEQUENCES
CONSEQUENCES
ORGANIZATIONAL
CHARACTERISTICS
• Size/class
• occupancy
• affiliation
• age of facility
• age of facility
STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE
• Intermediaries
• Competitors
• Industry association
• Government
• Consumers
• Communities
• Activists/NGOs
CHARACTERISTICS
OF MANAGERS
• age
• education
• religion
• income
• nationality
• Managers’
characteristic
s
ENVIRONMENTAL
PERFORMANCE
Composite Model of Corporate Environmental Performance of
Hotels

9. • Research Perspective: Mixed methods i.e. positivist &
constructivist (Triangulation).
• Research Design: Explanatory, concurrent nested
triangulation and cross-sectional design.
• Research Instruments: Self-administered
questionnaires and interview guides.
• Sampling procedure, sample size & response rate:
stratified random sampling, convenience and purposive
sampling
 200 hotel managers out of 243 (82.3% response rate)
 343 international tourists out of 382 (89.8% response
rate)
 Interviews with key informants (AMA, GTB, EPA and
GHA as well as the Kokrobite and La communities)

11. • Pre-test: in Cape coast and Elmina in May 2010.
• Fieldwork: Personal calls and self-administration
of questionnaires between June and August 2010
• Data analysis: SPSS version 16.
• Factor analysis: six factors extracted from the
33 EPIs explaining 57.1% of the variance.
• Reliability of scale of items for measuring
environmental performance: Cronbach alpha
value of (0.911) well above the limit of 0.70
required for the internal consistency of the
constructs.

12. Operationalization of Dependent Variable
33 EPIs in ten areas of environmental management served as the basis
for the assessment of environmental performance of the hotels:
Category Area of Environmental Management Number of EPIs
1 Compliance with environmental laws and legislation 4
2 Conservation 3
3 Eco-labelling and certification 2
4 Environmental auditing 2
5 Environmental education and communication 3
6 Environmental health and pollution prevention 3
7 Green marketing 3
8 Green purchasing 4
9 Support for local communities 4
10 Waste management and recycling 5

14. Environmental Performance among Hotels in Key Areas
ANOVA test at p < 0.05 was F (3, 196) = 16.14, p = 0.00 with
significant differences in 24 out of 33 EPIs. (H3 rejected).
Environmental Performance of Hotels

15. Hotels that have adopted environmental policies and programmes
Environmental management policies and programmes Frequency Percent
Named officer responsible for environmental management 48 24.0
Written environmental policy statement 17 8.5
Environmental action plan 67 33.5
Environmental purchasing 156 78.0
Offer environmental friendly products and services 157 78.9
Initiatives to improve environmental performance 68 34.0
History of implementing environmental programmes 50 25.1
Source: Fieldwork, 2010
Initiatives to improve environmental performance

16. Hotel Managers’ Environmental Attitude
Statements of environmental initiatives/issues Total
Agreement
percentage* Mean
Std.
Dev.
Hotels have a moral responsibility to protect the environment 200 90.5 4.63 0.77
Improvement in environmental performance will lead to improved financial performance 200 91.5 4.61 0.76
Taking positive action on environmental issues contributes to the hotel’s brand image and
competitive market position
199 87.9 4.50 0.81
Hotels contribute to local and global environmental problems through their operations. 200 72.5 4.04 1.23
The hotel industry will be increasingly pressurized by government to take action on
environmental issues.
200 71.5 4.24 1.08
*Agreement percentage is composed of both respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the statements
Based on a scale of 1-5 (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree)

17. Factors Influencing Environmental Performance of Hotels
• H1 & H2 were tested employing a hierarchical regression
model Y1 = α + β1x1 + ....... +β15x15+ ε
• The overall regression model was significant independent
variables significantly explain about 24% of the variance in
environmental performance (R2
= 0.242; F= 5.498; p< 0.01).
• Size of hotel (β = 0.35, P<0.05) and class of hotel (β = 0.29,
P<0.01) significantly influenced the environmental
performance of hotels in Accra. This supports the findings of
Alvarez Gil et al (2001) and Cespedes Lorente et al (2003).
• Most socio-demographic characteristics such as nationality,
age, level of education, marital status, gender and religion
did not significantly influence environmental performance.

18. International Tourists’ Perception of Hotel Environmental Issues
Environmental Issues N
Percentage in
agreement
Mean
Std. Dev
Hotels claim to be environmentally responsible is indeed so 341 14.7 2.53 0.91
Hotels educate their guests on environmental responsibility 326 19.7 2.52 0.98
Hotels contribute to environmental protection and conservation 337 39.8 3.14 0.90
Hotel development and operations destroy the environment 337 34.1 2.90 1.08
Hotels contribute to the global environmental problems 337 45.6 3.25 0.90
Hotels claim to be environmental-conscious to enhance their images 333 69.1 3.65 0.90
Hotels have a responsibility to preserve and protect natural areas 341 87.1 4.21 0.78
I am more likely to book a hotel with a responsible environmental
attitude
340 82.4 4.13 0.87
Based on a scale of 1-5; 1= strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 = agree, and 5 = strongly agree.

19. International Tourists’ Environmental Attitude
• 84% were willing to pay more for their stay in a hotel
which was environmentally responsible.
• This result confirmed previous studies by Arias et al.
(2003), Masau & Prideaux (2003) and Han et al. (2009).
Extra Amount Tourists are willing to Pay

20. Tourists’ Perception of Hotels’ Environmental Performance
Area of Environmental Performance N Mean
Std.
Dev.
Sanitation and waste management 334 3.90 0.96
Use of local facilities and materials 333 3.87 0.93
Recycling 314 2.86 1.08
Energy conservation 331 3.78 0.97
Water conservation 326 3.85 0.93
Landscaping and nature conservation 329 3.80 1.08
Provision of information to guests 330 3.21 1.14
Educating guests on environmentally-friendly practices 329 2.60 1.14
Environmental health and pollution prevention 328 2.83 1.20
Based on a scale of 1-6 (1 = very poor, 6 = excellent)

21. Other Stakeholders’ Perception
Hotels in Accra were generally perceived as having both
positive and negative impacts on the environment.
 “Before this hotel was located here, the whole of the
beach used to be very dirty and I could see even women
defecating on the beach everyday...... sometimes our
fishermen step in faeces when they are pulling their nets”
(opinion leader at Kokrobite)
 “There are different categories of hotels, hotels in urban
areas are not impacting…..though waste is the major
problem……large scale hotels and resorts in
environmentally sensitive areas are the ones impacting…”
(An officer at EPA).

22. • “Where the hotel and the beach are located used to be
where our fishermen operated their business......now
they have been forced to move to a smaller place which
is not enough for their fishing activities” (Opinion leader
at La).
• Stakeholders were of the opinion that hotels were doing
very well was in the use of local materials as well as
sanitation and waste management but needed to
improve in the areas of environmental health,
community support, compliance, recycling and
environmental education.

23. • Upscale and larger hotels have better environmental
performance.
• Size and class of hotel are the best predictors of hotels’
environmental performance.
• Though hotel managers have positive attitude towards
EM, they do not commit enough resources and efforts
towards improving their environmental performance.
• Voluntary environmental initiatives are almost non-
existent in the hotel industry in Accra.
• Environmental management in the Ghanaian hotel
industry is loosely associated with sanitation and waste
management.

24. • Inter-hotel collaboration
• Environmental education
• Encourage development of voluntary
environmental programmes
• Green hotel development
• Institute pro-environmental structures and
policies
• Change focus of waste management in hotels
from waste collection and disposal to waste
reduction and recycling.