Perspectives and challenges of green hotel in Thailand

Abstract

The hotel business is intense resource consumption such as water, energy, and non-durable products to delight customers, leading to environmental problems. With this regard, the transformation of the green hotel and environmental saving programs can dwindle the hotel property's adverse impacts. The purposes of this paper are 1) to study the perception of hotel practitioners and stakeholders toward the critical challenges of green hotel transformation and 2) to propose the recommendations for green hotel operations and certification scheme in Thailand. The study employed mixed methods to collect the data. The in-depth interviews were along with field observation; the interviews data were conducted with ten persons of green hotel practitioners, three non-green hotel practitioners, and a representative from a governmental agency to identify the obstacles of green hotel development. Besides, the study distributed online questionnaires to 192 Thai and Non -Thai travelers to explore their experiences of green hotel staying and selection decisions. A content analysis, descriptive analysis, and chi-square test were employed. The in-depth interviews results indicated that the critical challenges of green hotel transition were a high investment in resource consumption and energy efficiency systems, staff training, monitoring process, and lack of government upholds that make the hotelier uncertain. Scoping on the online survey found that customers mainly concern about price and hotel location, which is the rationale of green hotel selection cutting off. Besides, an education level was a sole factor that correlates with the green hotel staying decision. To encourage and enlarge the green hotel transition in Thailand and customers decision process in green hotel staying, green hotel stakeholders and the governmental agencies should work closely in providing incentives, establishing promotion campaigns as well as providing educational green hotel information at national and international levels that can lead to long-term success of a green hotel in Thailand.