Dissertation on Strategic Communication Management in UK Hospitality

This dissertation explores the significance of strategic communication management for sustainability within the UK hospitality industry, focusing on Marriott Hotel as a case study. It investigates the importance of sustainability communication for hospitality companies, examines effective communication strategies employed by Marriott Hotel, and discerns the benefits gained through these strategies. The study addresses the problem of selecting the right communication channels and emphasizes the role of sustainability in enhancing customer experiences, brand image, and employee retention. It reviews literature on sustainability practices, including green technology adoption, waste reduction, and energy management, highlighting their impact on cost savings and competitive advantage. The research aims to provide insights for practitioners and researchers on effectively communicating sustainability to engage customers and stakeholders, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development goals of the hospitality sector. Desklib provides solved assignments and study tools for students.

Dissertation
(Analysis of strategic communication
management for sustainability in the
hospitality industry of the UK)

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................3
1.1. Background of the topic........................................................................................................3
1.2. Research Aim, Objectives and Questions.............................................................................4
1.3. Rationale of the study...........................................................................................................4
1.4. Significance of the study......................................................................................................5
1.5. Problem statement of the study.............................................................................................5
1.6. Background of the organisation............................................................................................5
1.7. Structure of the study............................................................................................................5
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................7
2.1. What is the importance for hospitality company to communicate about sustainability?.....7
2.2. What are effective communication strategies adopted by Marriott Hotel for
communicating sustainability?....................................................................................................9
2.3. What are the benefits gained by Marriott Hotel by communicating sustainability?..........11
2.4. Theoretical framework........................................................................................................14
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the topic
Sustainability is one of the pivotal issues for the hospitality industry's development. This
is the industry which attempts several ways for achieving this objective, effective
communication is one of the prevalent ones. There are many hospitality operators which refrain
from taking apt sustainable action (Cerchione and Bansal, 2020). In their view, sustainability
means that consumers require to sacrifice conveniences, which decreases the overall experience
of customers and also reduces their levels of satisfaction. There are many cases in which
customers raise complaints that hotels are focusing over saving their money by making
customers reuse the towels or refrain from having their rooms cleaned. This hinders hotels from
taking initiatives for sustainability. There are particular studies which show that this increases the
requirement of communicating sustainability to customers. Creation of the awareness about the
sustainability would support the initiatives taken by hospitality industry for maintaining
sustainability in their business functions and operations (Tiago and et. al., 2021). However, there
are many tourists and travellers who purposefully select hotels which are eco-friendly in nature.
Thus, ineffective communication between customers and hotel exists and impacts customer
relationship management within hospitality industry. The hospitality industry is consistently
demonstrating their determination and willingness for promoting sustainability. Hospitality
industry has also adopted several diversified methods for assisting their interaction with
customers and communication is one of the best ways. Communicating several sustainable
practices through various channels have also assisted hotels in their marketing procedure (Gil-
Soto and et. al., 2019). This also hotels to stand out in the presence of several number of
competitors. Thus, communication is integrated in customer relationship management for
assisting hotels to realise the objective of sustainable development. But, it is a challenging job
for many hotels to effectively communicate and interact a sustainable image and motivate
customers of hotel to act sustainably. There are several practitioners of the hotel who operate
together carrying out effective communication strategies to communicate sustainability in the
business operations and functions (Sharma, Chen and Liu, 2020). Therefore, the present study
aims at generating in-depth information about significance of strategic communication
management for sustainability within an organisation. This report also includes the behavioural

intention of the customers while booking their hotels and practices adopted by them to remain
sustainable.
1.2. Research Aim, Objectives and Questions
Research Aim
The aim of the present study is “To investigate the significance of strategic
communication management for sustainability within an organisation.” A study on Marriott
Hotel, London
Research Objectives
The objectives of the current study are:
 To evaluate the importance for hospitality company to communicate about sustainability
 To examine effective communication strategies adopted by Marriott Hotel for
communicating sustainability
 To discern the benefits gained by Marriott Hotel by communicating sustainability
Research Questions
The questions of the present research are:
 What is the importance for hospitality company to communicate about sustainability?
 What are effective communication strategies adopted by Marriott Hotel for
communicating sustainability?
 What are the benefits gained by Marriott Hotel by communicating sustainability?
1.3. Rationale of the study
The main motive of doing the current study is to highlight the requirement of
communicating sustainability by hotels to customers. It shows the strategic communication
management is essential for hospitality industry for communicating sustainable practices and
strategies in a systematic manner (Kapoor, Balaji and Jiang, 2021). In the current time,
customers as well as hotels are aware about the significance of sustainability. So, this report
covers the various communication strategies to communicate sustainable practices to engage
with customers and retain them for long time. Researcher has also aimed at attaining two vital
objectives: personal and professional objectives. In terms of personal objective, researcher will
be learning about the significance of sustainability for protecting the society and environment.
On the other hand, in respect of professional perspective, investigator will be learning about the

several strategies of communication which would support the better career and professional
development.
1.4. Significance of the study
The present study holds great importance as it covers the most significant element within
hospitality industry i.e. sustainability. This shows that communication of sustainable measures is
also significant because it assists in engaging large number of customers and gaining trust of
other stakeholders towards the business (Krizanova and et. al., 2019). Other than this it also has
major significance for researchers, professionals, companies, students and so on. They can
depend upon this study for meeting their own objectives because it records accurate and reliable
information.
1.5. Problem statement of the study
The major problem identified in the current investigation is that hotels face issue in
selecting right method of communicating suitability (Preziosi and et. al., 2019). They generally
face issue in selecting right type of communication channel from the available several
communication channels. This becomes the barrier in communicating appropriately with
customers about sustainability and engaging them with the hotel.
1.6. Background of the organisation
The selected organisation for the existing study is Marriott hotel. Marriott hotel is one of
the brands which provides full-service hotels and resorts. The headquarters of the hotel is located
in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. The founder of the hotel is J. Willard Marriott and it is
founded in 1957.
1.7. Structure of the study
Introduction: The first section of the existing research is introduction which gives brief
about the selected topic. It also highlights the research aim, questions and objectives. This also
gives the purpose and rationale of the study.
Literature review: This forms the second chapter of current project that provides a
systematic review of the pre-exiting set of data. Literature review forms a vital section of a
project as it leads a base and framework for undertaking further investigation.

Research methodology: Another chapter is research methodology which provides
methods for accumulating information and analysing assembled data. Quantitative research
methods will be used by researcher.
Data analysis and findings: It is the chapter which makes discussion on the basis of
findings and systematic literature review (Gerdt, Wagner and Schewe, 2019). Questionnaire will
be formed and frequency distribution analysis will also be used by investigator to evaluate and
analyse numerable data.
Conclusion and recommendations: This chapter covers the summary of every chapters
and part of recommendations provides particular suggestions to the organisation.

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review provides a summary of previous research on a particular topic. The
different sources which are covered in literature review are journals, books, articles, government
reports, newspapers, websites, etc. This chapter mainly focuses on providing summary,
description and evaluation of each sources. Literature review is generally written as a part of
dissertation, thesis or research paper so that work can be situated in existing knowledge. A good
literature focuses on showing the sign of synthesis and knowledge about the chosen topic. The
goal of literature review is to inform the research topic and also identify the possible gap in the
scholarly literature for the further research. Thus, it provides an understanding about the existing
research to the specific topic and present that knowledge in the form of written report.
2.1. What is the importance for hospitality company to communicate about sustainability?
As per the opinion of Ozturkoglu, Sari and Saygili (2019), hospitality company can gain
various importance while communicating about the sustainability. Sustainability plays a vital
role within hospitality industry as it creates a positive influence on the experiences of customer.
Due to the number of travellers increases, the pressure on the environment also increases. Thus,
it is important for the hospitality companies and travellers to take the step in order to curb the
adverse effects of travelling on the environment. Hotels and travellers both are aware about the
fact that their activities have impact on the environment whether by utilising goods or producing.
In order to run the hotel in smooth manner, there is a requirement of water, electricity, goods and
many other factors which are consumable and durable. Hospitality industry generally creates
waste in the form of equipment, furniture, bulbs, appliances, tubes etc. In recent years, hotels are
focusing on implementing green technology and use the new green development projects. Hotels
are focusing on using alternative source of energy in order to produce energy such as solar, wind
an air. Through implementing unsustainable practices, hospitality company can stand out from
its competitors. When company go green it leads to higher customer satisfaction, better loyalty
and word of mouth marketing (Cerchione and Bansal, 2020). Sustainability within workplace
helps in saving money by reducing waste and spending. It also reduces the negative impact on
the environment by taking efforts to be green. The benefits which can be availed by the company
through implementing sustainable practices are attracting more and more customers, improving
brand image and minimising cost. Along with this, the improving employee retention is also a

key advantage of sustainability. Further, by communicating about the sustainability, hospitality
company can increase their brand image and profitability. It would also help in attracting more
and more customers towards the brand within hospitality industry. It is being determined that
people prefer services of the brand that promotes sustainability. Further. hotels also implement
sustainable practices within workplace in order to reduce negative influence from the
environment. The implementation of sustainable practices helps in reducing the spending and
waste and also it gives public relation advantage over competing operations. The one of the
easiest way to adopt sustainable practices within business is to recycle and reuse. By recycling
and reusing, company can reduce the wastage and also conserve the resources like energy and
water. It is important for a hospitality industry to focus on providing training opportunities to
their staff so that they can learn to turn off lights and implement more sustainable practices in
order to improve brand image (Legrand and et. al., 2020). Thus, there are various initiatives
which are taken by the hotel in order to go green such as energy consumption, water
management and waste management. The use of sustainable practices helps in reducing energy
related cost by focusing on improvements. If hotel focuses on making use of energy efficient
lighting and adjust lightning level with the production schedule it would help in reducing long
term electrical cost.
Sustainability in the hotel plays an important role as it helps in attracting new customers
and also boost the sale of business. Green and sustainable practices make the brand more
marketable. People are more conscious about the environment and by making improvements
within workplace the reputation and brand image of company increases. When hotel adopt
sustainable practices it helps in attracting employees and investors. It helps in building corporate
image due to which more and more talented employees can be attracted towards the brand
(Amatulli, De Angelis and Stoppani, 2021). Company can also retain their employees by making
them more efficient by giving an opportunity to work for a reputed company that cares for the
environment. It also helps in making employees feel that they can make difference and also
contribute to society. Hotel must show their property that believes in environmental protection. It
helps in attracting more and more talented staff with great calibre. There is a great role of
leadership while implementing sustainability. For instance, establishing energy management
programs, evaluating energy usage, embracing renewable energy, educating employees and
many others are effective ways of sustainability. The leaders of the hotel must have clear

understanding about the energy usage so that they can identify the areas of improvements.
Leaders can routinely evaluate the energy use and also seek out energy saving practices in order
to improve efficiency and cut cost. Sustainable practices also help in embracing renewable
energy by reducing their business carbon footprint. Thus, there are few emerging trends in
hospitality industry related to sustainability such as eliminating single use plastic, crating
paperless environment, purchasing green cleaning environment, developing recycling programs
and sourcing from sustainable suppliers. The implementation of sustainable practices helps in
improving the productivity and performance of business due to which company can attract more
and more number of guest (Kim, Barber and Kim, 2019). The implementation of sustainable
practices helps in making business profitable as customers generally get attracted with the brand
that focuses on implementing sustainable practices. Further, the adoption of the sustainability
practices also reduces the negative influence from the environment.
2.2. What are effective communication strategies adopted by Marriott Hotel for communicating
sustainability?
As per the opinion of Amatulli, De Angelis and Stoppani (2021), sustainability is one of
the pivotal issues for the development of hospitality industry. Thus, it is a significant for an
organisation to communicate about the concept of sustainability for persuading it towards the
large number of customers. The efforts made by an organisation to communicate and convey
sustainability is known as sustainability performance signalling. There are several motivations
which have been found about the reasons organisations mainly focus over such types of
initiatives (Tölkes, 2018). It includes building credibility and reputation for the organisations,
executing performance assessment and benchmarking, and having standards for better
management. A commonly used method to communicate is to record what an organisation has
done in this regard. This has become one of the integrated parts of several organisations annual
report on corporate social responsibility.
With the assistance of advanced technology, websites have become one of the important
platforms for hospitality industry to convey and communicate about sustainability. There are
many conducted studies which have shown that one of the greatest mode is web-based for
sustainability communication. In addition to this, there are also several studies which show that
there are also other interactive modes which include e-mails and discussion forums. All these
methods have been adopted by the company to communicate about their sustainability practices

and sustainable efforts. There are many studies which have conducted for evaluating the
performance of online communication of several organisations through interviews and surveys.
Sustainable communication is one of the fundamental strategies for increasing competitiveness
of hotels in the market (Yacob and Peter, 2022). But, there are many issues in the
implementation of strategies. It has been seen that the website of the hotel generally does not
hold an apparent place for communicating practices of hotel in relation to sustainability. Thus,
the main source for customer's information about sustainability in the hospitality increases from
on-site observations and experience of customers. Beside this, it is also involving reading from
booklets of hotel, observation of the apt sustainable practices of the hotel employees and sensing
another eco-friendly signals posted by several hotels.
Greenwashing is a kind of communication commonly considered by hotels. It defines to
the usage of unconfirmed or misleading marketing claims in relation to sustainable services,
technologies and products used by hotels. Greenwashing has assisted in contributing to the
decrease in trust level of customers towards the hotel, as they are critical and sensitive while
receiving the misleading data provided by the hotel (Shen, Qian and Chen, 2020). Another major
issue identified in the communication of hospitality sustainability is greenhushing (Horng and et.
al., 2018). It refers to the under-communication about the sustainability of a hotel. This happens
when an hotel thinks that customers believe that sustainability communication by the hotel is one
of the marketing strategies and they do not perform anything real in regards to protecting the
environment. Therefore, the hotel selects to convey what it has done less often. Greenhushing
also includes of the hotels with sustainable certificates hesitate to showcase the data, either on
the websites or on any other platform of marketing.
Apparently, appropriate and effective communication of sustainable image of a hotel is a
significant method for improving customer relationship. It generally assists in boosting the
development of the whole hotel. But, it is the impact of communication and interaction goes in
one direction, the customers of the hotel generally believe the hotel or it may decrease what the
hotel has completed in relation to sustainability. Thus, this type of communication cannot
shoulder the role to improve customer relationship along with the sustainability objective of
hotels. There are many other methods and principles which help hotel to communicate about the
efforts of sustainability (Kim, Barber and Kim, 2019). Communication helps in fulfilling the role
of spreading apt information to the target people. This can assist the customer and business to be

eco-friendlier and more willing for practising sustainability at hotels as well as in the life. Hence,
a more successful customer relationship could be made simultaneously. With the highly
advancement in information technologies, especially the continuous utilisation of social media,
customer relationship management is majorly dependent over every technological methods and
tools. Therefore, a new term social customer relationship management is used for representing
the trend. It is referred as one of the greatest business strategies created in a trusted environment
for attracting customers to participate in active communication and interaction, in the hope of
attaining mutual benefits. In hospitality, several strategies, effects and patterns of social customer
relationship management have been determined. This is also known as one of the greatest
mediums for promoting the long-term survival of the whole hospitality industry.
It tends to be the responsibility of the hotels to always think about the methods to
strengthen the perceptions of the business. A time of crisis is called the perfect moment for
standing out from the competition. Social media is one of the secret weapons that has assisted
hotels to communicate with their existing and prospective customers. It is known as hotel's
omnipresent companion that keeps us connected to real world and it can be considered for
communicating with visitors and guests about the present, past and future. Hotel could consider
several social media platforms for functional procedures such as keeping visitors informed about
the status of their using sustainable practices (Tölkes, 2018). Hotels are the core value and they
are constantly communicating and connecting with guests and visitors considering various
platforms. Guests are very important and they get upset when hotel does not adopt any practice
for communicating about the sustainable practices and methods. The other method is
communicating about sustainability through providing and arranging employee training sessions.
In these training sessions, employee is provided with methods to communicate and interact with
the customers about the sustainability. Therefore, communication of sustainability plays
significant role in maintaining the brand reputation as well as goodwill in the market because it
helps in engaging large number of customers towards the hotel.
2.3. What are the benefits gained by Marriott Hotel by communicating sustainability?
As per the opinion of Linneberg and et. al., (2019), sustainability is the practice which is
quite popular as a business strategy. Hotels get great benefits when they adopt several strategies
of sustainability. However, only adoption of sustainability does not work but its communication
is necessary because it assists in informing associated parties. Sustainability communication

refers to the approach which helps in engaging customers as well as investors with the motive of
showcasing progress and success on their sustainability commitments. It is clearly understood to
have a positive impact on the value of shareholders when hotel showcases the way they drive
value of the business with the help of sustainability. Sustainability communication is one of the
ways which assists in engaging investors, employees or customers as the significant stakeholders
and aligns appropriately. Further, the overall strategic objectives of the organisation as explained
by the sustainability action plan. Any action plan of the hotel must be able to explain the role
performed by communication in sustainable development. An appropriate sustainability
communication strategy is necessary for having the desired advantages both material and non-
material. Strategy of sustainability communication like any another strategy, has to commence
with an information driven understanding of the stakeholders and an audience. The apt mix of
communication channels could then accelerate the delivery of information. The strategy of
sustainable communication begins with an appropriate understanding of the audience. The
people are generally stakeholders which include: investors, employees and customers.
Communicating sustainability helps hotel to move towards success and development. It is being
determined that customers are more likely to be loyal and honest to an organisation that adopts
sustainable methods into their business (Achmad and Yulianah, 2022). Highlighting
sustainability efforts of the hotel and being transparent to the audience, can be profitable and
favourable for the company. By promoting green technology of a company or any environmental
and social initiatives, organisation could take advantage by receiving positive public relation
exposure and linking with new target markets. In simpler language, with the effective
communication of sustainability, hotels focus over informing their customers about the practices
they are adopting to protect the society and the environment. Hotels are very well-aware about
the fact that nowadays customers have become more environment conscious and prefer only
those hotels which are adopting several strategies of sustainability (Camilleri, 2020). So, with the
proper communication of sustainability, hotels engage and attracts large number of customers
towards the business. So, with the help of social media channels, hotels get to know about the
strategies adopted by the other hotels to remain sustainable. Along with this, it also attracts
customers through adoption of several communication channels. When hotel promotes their
sustainable practices then they highlight that they are worried about the environment and society.
Beside this, it also presents that hotel is taking necessary steps for mitigating the negative impact