Are hotels in Nigeria proactive in environmental management practices?

• Main Authors: Mu‘azu, L., Rashid, Basri, Zainol, Noor Azimin
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: G Geography (General)
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/13323/1/41.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/13323/; http://www.thic-uum.com/
• Institution: Universiti Utara Malaysia

Environmental management system refers to major practices in energy management, waste management, and water conservation with the aim of protecting the environment.Hotels in Nigeria are rapidly developing, yet very little is known about their environmental proactivity.Despite its importance to the hotel industry, most hotels in Nigeria are reluctant in adopting some of these practices in their hotels.Therefore, this gap is addressed through a survey that empirically examined the factors that have a major influence on the adoption of environmental management practices in Nigerian hotels.In order to identify some of the major environmental management practices among hotels in Nigeria, some hotels in Kaduna were targeted and a total of 30 hoteliers participated in the survey.For this purpose, a framework has been proposed and a pilot survey that provides specific variables that might have an impact of these practices have been investigated by conducting a regression analysis.In order to collect the primary data a questionnaire was designed for which 50 was distributed with 30 valid responses representing 60%.The study reveals that the entire green practice constructs (energy, water and waste management) are positively related to the adoption of green practices in the hotel industry.The analysis further showed energy management practices involving the use of energy saving equipment as a hotels‘ most common practice towards environmental management.Suggestions are made towards improvement of voluntary environmental practices in those hotels that have implemented some form of environmental practices and to those that are yet to adopt environmental management practices to embrace environmental practice to reduce environmental degradation.