Environmental social responsible practices of hospitality industry: The case of first level hotels and lodges in Gondar city, Ethiopia

Abstract

As a means of sustainability achievement and balanced assessment of positive and negative impact of tourism and hospitality industry, taking responsibility towards the silent stakeholder (environment) emerged as a new phenomenon in the late 1980s.  The main concern of this paper is to identify the environmental responsible practices of the hospitality industry in the special focus of first level hotels and lodges in Gondar city, Ethiopia. All the ten first level hotels and lodges were used as research target areas. Data for the study was obtained from the hotel employees (through questionnaire) and from the managers (through semi-structured interview). The study found that, the hotels and lodges engaged more in saving water activity in all area, management of waste and Conserve energy/example light usage, use of energy efficient equipments. Relatively, they engaged in the less extent level in the issues of involving in environmental issues in the city and giving environmental information on its services and activities to the stakeholders. In addition to these the establishments involve in specific internal environmental practices like reusing, design of the construction for compatible waste and water saving and FIFO(First In First Out) and externally, sponsoring environmental concerned nongovernmental and governmental organization practices. Very few establishments practice the environmental concerned guideline of HACCAP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point). Based on the finding of the study, the researcher recommend scholarly recommendations including the establishments engage more in the external environmental practices besides the internal environmental good practices.

Keywords: Environment, Social Responsibility, Hotels and Lodges, Sustainability, Gondar