Eureka! Institutional Repository

  This paper begins with an introduction that allows the reader to acquaint himself with the issue analyzed below. The introduction begins with a short historical overview of tourism as a phenomenon and carries on with an analysis of the Greek touristic product. In tandem, there is a SWAT analysis based on that and an extended reference to the touristic strategy followed in Greece. Later on we delve into the main part of the paper where we analyze what the various classifications of Hotel units and rented apartments stand for, how they are categorized in stars and keys respectively, which laws and ordinances a Hotel business has to adhere to concerning classification and the reasons why these laws and ordinances are necessary. We also delve deeper into what environmental certifications are, the ways a Hotel unit can acquire one, we describe the stages of preparation and the benefits of such a certification and we present a significant number of certifications, namely ISO, Greenkey, Travelife, Ecolabel while at the same time we make a reference to ΕΣΥΔ, the Greek Environmental Certification Agency. Before the extensive reference to the Environmental Certifications we attempt a historical overview of Green Business and more specifically we explain how and why it came to be, what stages it went through and the way it evolved in time. In the first chapter we deal exclusively with the classifications and certifications of Hotel businesses covering them one by one and giving the reader a clear idea of what they are and how they operate. In the second chapter we conduct a qualitative survey by means of a questionnaire. Our survey focused on a sample of 50 Hotel units in Greece that were either part of a specific chain or operated individually and were classed from 3 to 5 stars. The aim of the specific survey was to test their knowledge on Environmental Specifications and enquire whether they deem that their practices help with Green Development, if they believe that the certification of their Hotel can benefit them with regard to sales, if the classification procedure can substitute certification and finally, which the reasons are, if any, behind their lack of interest in the compliance of their business with the certification parameters. Furthermore, we present our survey findings via graphs and tables along with comments. In the 3rd and last chapter we cite the conclusions of the whole paper combined with those of the survey.