Environmental Management: Assessment of Macedonian Hotel Industry

Tourism is heavily affected by and contributes to negative impacts on the environment. Despite the effort of the accommodation sector to introduce many practices that enable environmental protection, it is still a profound factor that contributes to environmental footprint of tourism. The paper investigates the application of the environmental management by elaborating the case of Macedonian hotels. It explores to what extent hotels meet the energy efficiency practices in terms of the current level of involvement. Data were collected by an online survey among managers and department supervisors. Moreover, the study assesses the attitudes and willingness of hotel managers concerning application of energy efficiency and environmental protection concepts and practices. It is found that large number of hotels does not apply policies on general environmental issues. Hotel management is lacking interest in the energy efficiency blaming the high operational costs and restricted financial funds for application of renewable energy sources. The paper recommends valuable findings for developing and exerting wide range of environmental initiatives. At the same time, it poses new challenges for hotel establishments, which may become increasingly environmentally responsible by implementing sustainable management programs. By having environmental proactiveness, hotel management may boost development of sustainable hotel industry, and tourism in general.