Customers’ ethical behaviour towards hotels

Abstract

This study is an exploratory research effort to understand hotel future customers’ intentions to adopt and perform the three types of ethical tourism, namely positive, negative and discursive types. There has been scant research, so far, with regards to ethical behaviour in the tourism sector. In addition there are considerable voids with reference to the factors that are able to affect this type of behaviour. However, in Greece there is already a considerable number of hotels, which have obtained the Green Key certificate. Their managers do need and seek for the most optimum marketing channels to promote their competitive advantages. The present study aimed to offer a somewhat better understanding of future travellers’ intentions to adopt ethical consumption when travelling. Intentions of future travellers to search, plan and actually visit a green hotel was examined. The examination included also consumers’ willingness to participate in a boycotting against an unethical hotel and further spread their word against unethical hotel practices through discursive activities, such as petitions gathering, taking part in protest events etc. In addition, it was aimed to investigate the impact of attitudes and demographics on customers’ intentions to adopt and perform the above mentioned ethical behaviours. With reference to intentions to stay at a green hotel, it was found that potential travellers seem more agreeable to express their willingness to stay at a green hotel than to plan or make an actual effort to do so. The usual in consumer behaviour gap between intentions and actual behaviour was established here once more. It was also found that travellers are very much willing to participate in a hotel boycotting in cases that the hotel under boycotting has been demonstrably reported for safety and hygiene scandals, child labour, cruelty towards animals and particularly barbaric exploitation of their employees. On the contrary, consumers were not found equally willing to participate in discursive activities against unethical hotels. In fact, all they were found to do is to discuss with their friends the possibility of getting engaged in a hotel boycotting. The results also indicated that better educated consumers expressed higher level of intentions to stay at a green hotel, to boycott and discursively act against an unethical hotel, than their counterparts did. Women were found more likely to participate in a hotel’s boycotting and consumers of 35-44 years of age were found more likely to enhance discursive activities. Attitudes that concern green hotels seem to be able to influence moderately travellers’ intentions to stay at a green hotel. Intentions are mostly effected by those attitudes that concern consumers’ feelings that staying at a green hotel is favourable and desirable. Attitudes in overall were found to be more able to influence consumers’ willingness to stay at a green hotel than their actual plans or efforts to do so. Attitudes seem to be able, to a lesser extent, to influence consumers’ intentions to get involved in boycotting and discursive activities. These findings, if studied carefully, might very well be found useful to marketing management strategies in cases of green hotels or hotels, which would decide to “go green” in the future. The Green Key certification should become one of criteria used in searching and locating hotels either through internet or the agencies. In addition, enthusiastic testimonials of past customers might very well be incorporated in the communication campaigns of the green hotels.