Sustainability Perceptions in Hospitality Industry

This assignment explores the perceptions of sustainability among hotel business students. Male participants tend to view sustainability as an environmental and ecological imperative, focusing on initiatives like recycling, water conservation, and green energy. In contrast, female respondents emphasize sustainability's business importance for long-term success, with a more theoretical understanding than practical knowledge of sustainability initiatives.

Running head: HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY
Hospitality students’ perceptions of sustainability
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 1
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review............................................................................................................................2
Research Questions..........................................................................................................................3
Research Methods............................................................................................................................3
Key themes......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 2
Introduction
Hospitality industry is one of the largest industries in the world with a global
contribution of $7.6 trillion (US) in 2016 having immense effect on social wellbeing being a key
contributor to revenue and job generator (Statista, 2016). However owing to its nature, it proves
to put a lot of pressure on the ecology. Sustainability is the idea which emphasizes that human
activity ought to be mindful of its actions to ensure conservation of the ecological balance and
natural resources. Deloitte underlined the importance of sustainability as, “Rising populations
and increasingly scarce resources will provide a challenging business environment in which
sustainability will need to be embedded within all facets of the industry, rather than regarded as a
standalone issue.”(Deloitte, 2014, p. 41)
This research aims to investigate the perception of students of hospitality and tourism,
who constitute the future workers of the industry and in that context, the presence of potential
gender based differences. The insight gained is expected to aid educators regarding how they
should approach sustainability education to instil the concepts to the future generation, ensuring
that the industry could be better equipped in operating by keeping in mind the idea of
sustainability.
Literature Review
Eagle et al. (2015) reported on a longitudinal study targeting undergraduate business
students’ understanding of sustainability in business and highlighted a tendency of subjects to
remain oblivious to their own capacity for exacting change and potential impact they could have
in tackling environmental and sustainability challenges and thus being unwilling to change
lifestyles. Reid, Petocz & Taylor (2009) addressed a very specific challenge that exists with
regard to implementing a curriculum which tackles sustainability issues in business education
courses. They revealed that while some students of business do have considerable depth of
understanding regarding sustainability and its need, many were naive and unaware of the full
extent of its implications. Some had a limited understanding of sustainability as merely the act of
ensuring continuity. Although, they did find evidence of students who viewed sustainability
practices as a moral responsibility towards coming generations. Focusing on existing scope of
sustainability education, Wiek et al. (2013), appraised the opportunities in international

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 3
education on sustainability concluding that only one out of seventeen institutions fulfil them.
They went on to present the challenges presented by “The Global Classroom Experiment”, a
composite experimental curriculum designed to fulfil those criteria. The study revealed that
challenges exist in levels of administration and faculty who need to develop skills to help guide
students who need to be flexible enough in worldview to contribute as well to a successful
program. Kagawa (2007), conducted a study investigating perceptions of university students’ on
sustainable development in light of their life styles, examining the effect of gender and their
courses being related to the environment. The study adopted a statistical approach to investigate
the matter, concluding that gender difference in perception was statistically significant although
the difference become insignificant when grouping based on courses.
The subject under study in this paper is the existing gap in knowledge of college students
enrolled in hospitality and related courses to be specific, putting emphasis on tentative gender
differences by studying how they understand sustainability and therefore how academics could
approach sustainability education for these people to ensure a standard of education which
integrates sustainability education with the coursework. Unlike Kagawa(2007), the paper uses a
qualitative research design to approach the issue.
Research Questions
The objectives of the research deals with answering the following:
 How do these future workers view sustainability in context of the hospitality industry?
 Are there any difference in the perception about sustainability between the male and
female subjects?
Research Methods
The research is based upon a qualitative approach. The data consist of answers to a set of
ten open-ended questions by twelve subjects six of them male and rets female, who are pursuing
college courses which are relevant to the hospitality and tourism business industry. The specific
methodology used here follows the guidelines of grounded theory. The data corpus has been
divided into two sets, one for male interviewees and the other for females. The questions
addressed their views about sustainability, its role in the hospitality industry and their home
country.

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 4
Core theoretical concepts relevant to the research questions are thus developed based on
the responses. Tentative links between those concepts are developed, followed by verification
through re-analysis of the data in context of those concepts and links (Graue, 2015). This is
achieved through coding strategy which included open coding, axial coding and selective coding
(Birks& Mills, 2015).
Open Coding is the practice of identifying, categorizing and cataloguing concepts within
the textual data which could lead to relevant theories within the context of the relevant topic
under study (Glaser, 2016). Repetitive or synonymous words which could lead up to common
themes are noted and documented. The identified distinct themes are then used for further
investigation (Urquhart, 2016).
Axial Coding is the practice of relating the identified categories or themes to one another
with the aim of determining any tentative association or causal relationship from a generalized
point of view (Zhang& Wildemuth, 2016).
Selective Coding is concerned with taking into consideration the identified relationships
in the axial coding step and then trying to determine the core or principal category supporting
some theory which addressed the research question (Smith, 2015).
Findings and key themes
The primary idea of sustainability was found to be attributed by the males using concepts
such as “continuation”, “recycling”, “maintain” and “environment”. For example, participant #2,
is quoted to be referring to sustainability as “I think it means something that can be continued”
(International, 19, #2). Similarly, participant #7 said, “Something that is permanent or that can
be recycled” (International, 22, # 7). Notice that such explanations are quite short and vague. It
was observed that they lacked cohesiveness in their concepts about what kind of role and how
sustainability could play in their industry. The following quotes depict the contrasting ideas that
the males hold.
“Anything to maintain a sustainable profit.” (International, 19, #2).
Compared to his answer for what he understands as sustainability is, the participant is
seemingly thinking around the lines of business and overlooking the environmental context of

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 5
sustainability. Comparatively, participant #7, seems to at least have a more concrete idea of what
sustainability is as viable sustainability practices as apparent from his answer,
“In industry, Solar-energy can be used as a major source of energy. Solar energy is
sustainable energy.” (International, 22, # 7).
Participant 10 was found to identify the concept with maintaining business rather than
ensuring environmental sustainability through business practices. Relating to sustainability and
initiatives, he said,
“The ability to maintain certain levels for a long time”.
“I think mainly it would be to build and maintain customer loyalty.” (International, 25, # 10).
Although participant #16 admitted to not having a very good idea about sustainability, he
revealed to identify sustainability practices in the industry with “green energy”. The relevance of
such practices according to him is stated as, “… otherwise greenhouse effect and global
warming will get worse.” (International, 24, #16). Therefore the focus although is correct from
moral perspective, it is suggested that he might lack, the insight regarding the business aspect of
sustainability practices in the industry.
Participant #18 displayed detailed knowledge about sustainability concerns and also
pointed out water and energy conservations as options of sustainability practice, however he
again failed to aptly explain why he felt that sustainability is important to his industry save for
being a “socio-ecological” ideal, saying just, “Yes it is very important”.
The females’ responses were found to be more descriptive. The primary idea of
sustainability was found to be attributed using concepts such as “environment”, “long-term”,
“protection”, “business” and “customer”. Notable among the answers is the following quote,
“Yes. As people become more and more environmentally conscious, future businesses
should consider it. Otherwise, people will remember it as a bad business and gradually stop
using it.” (International, 20, #22)
Participant #22 therefore could successfully identify the appeal of sustainability practices
to customers and given rising global awareness and concern, its value as a marketing strategy.

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 6
Her summarization of sustainability, emphasizes it in light of how essential it is to balance
ecological concerns with business operations and thus how environmental sustainability relates
to economic sustainability of the firm as well.
“… possibility to last and maintain without environmental damage. Sustainability must
be considered for a firm to radian in existence for long. Changes in people's perceptions make it
clear.” (International, 20, #22)
Participant #11 displays similar understanding, saying, “If a business is doing something
sustainably, it can get more good cmpetitive advantage than other business.” (International, 23,
#11)
Participant #14, sums up sustainability as, “… coordinated development f economic,
social, respurces and environmental protection” (International, 24, #14). However when asked
upon the specifics of sustainability practices that could be employed in the industry the female
participants , the responses seemed to invoke answers which did not seem to be aligned with the
ideas of sustainability they displayed to possess in their answers to related questions. Contrary to
that, the female participants, were found to be unable to identify sustainability practices and
associated sustainability initiatives in the hotel industry with meeting customer needs,
diversifying, etc.
Participant #14, answered, “To improve the experience of customers, for example, in the
food and beverage department, we can try the innovation of dishes, varieties and prices, which
are more affordable.” (International, 24, #14).
Participant #13 said, regarding initiatives as, “Diversify the business to meet customer
needs” (International, 25, #13). Again, Participant #11, said, “…it is a process that a hotel
business keep doing something. For example, a hotel's remains unique from other hotels.”
(International, 23, #11)
This statement when considered with her answer to sustainability, means that although
she views sustainability in context of marketing advantage, she lacks insight regarding the ideals
of ecological sustainability. None of the females could identify any of the existing sustainability

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 7
initiatives in the hospitality, suggesting that even though they have concept of what sustainability
entails, but lack insight about the operational aspects within the industry.
Both the groups thus seem to be insufficiently educated regarding the matter but their gap
in knowledge is focussed in differing areas. It is apparent that the male participants are more
sensitive towards environmental sustainability and its implementation rather than the economic
and social aspect of it. They also seem to have more coherent idea about sustainable practices. In
contrast to the male counterparts, the female respondents seem to be more sensitive towards
economic sustainability (Alhaddi, 2015). They seem to be more aware of how unsustainable
practices could adversely affect business in the long run and the marketing benefits of
“sustainable” practices. However they seem to lack awareness about practices which support
“sustainability”.
Conclusions
The males were more likely to view sustainability as environmental and ecological
imperative whereas the females emphasised that sustainability is a business imperative for the
long run. The males seem to focus more towards sustainability initiatives which could be and
ought to be employed such as recycling, water and food conservation, use of green energy. The
females on the other hand, expressed a more theoretical understanding of the rationale behind
sustainability than actual practical sustainability initiatives that are undertaken by governments
and hotels.

HOSPITALITY STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY 8
References
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Management Studies, 1(2), 6-10.
Birks, M., & Mills, J. (2015). Grounded theory: A practical guide. Sage.
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students toward sustainability issues. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher
Education, 16(5), 650-668.
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