Preferring green and rejecting “unethical” hotels

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine simultaneously all types of ethical tourism and investigate some of the factors able to affect it; and to explore the number and the size of green hotels’ customers segments.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey in the urban area Thessaloniki, Greece. Probability, large enough household sample. “Intentions to visit a green hotel”, “Boycotting” and “Discursive Activities” towards unethical hotels were investigated. External (EC)/Internal controls (IC) and past experience served as potential antecedents of behavioural intentions.

Findings

Intentions to visit a green hotel were found to correlate strongly both with other people’s impact (EC) and with respondents’ perceptions about their own means (IC); intentions are moderately influenced by previous experience. Clustering indicated that the “Willing” segment (26.6 per cent) gathered consumers, who obtained higher scores than their counterparts in the other two segments, namely “Hesitant” (40.4 per cent) and “Reluctant” (33 per cent).

Research limitations/implications

Incomplete demographical analysis, limited geographical area, social desirability. Future research might consider the employment of Theory of Planned Behaviour.

Practical implications

Communication strategy of green hotels should utilize important people’s suggestions. Targets should be persuaded that green hotels are neither more expensive nor more difficult to find. Travel searching engines should include the green key attribute. Need to create and promote the image of an ethical hotel being a concept beyond a green hotel.

Originality/value

All types of ethical tourism simultaneously examined. EC/IC provided significant evidence of impact on intentions. Cluster analysis of the ethical tourism market.

Citation

Tilikidou, I. and Delistavrou, A. (2015), "Preferring green and rejecting “unethical” hotels", EuroMed Journal of Business, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 285-296. https://doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-09-2014-0026