Management issues concerning environment: a hotel best practice from Turkey

Abstract

Tourism can have detrimental environmental impacts to natural resources, coastal zones, historical sites and cultural heritage if it is not planned and controlled. Tourism industry must be the more concerned than any other in the environmental protection since the survival is rely upon the existence of natural resources. With heightened environmental awareness among governments, tourists and increasing media coverage hotels face the challenge of reducing the environmental impact of their operations and institute best practices while meeting the increasing demand of a growing tourism industry. This paper presents a single case study approach to illustrate the environmental best practice in a resort located in Sarigerme, Turkey. The chosen hotel is the first ISO 14001 certificated hotel in Turkey. A search of documentary evidence such as hotel EMS manual, energy consumption rates, interviews with hotel staff on environmental issues were the main sources of data collection . The objective of this paper is to examine the environmental practices of the chosen resort in detail, identify new information that could serve as a reference for other hotels implementing or planning to implement environmental management programs Main findings are about cost savings in energy,water, decreases in waste disposals (275 waste disposal in 1998, 12 waste disposal in 2007) and the amounts of waste recycled (Recycled plastics in 2000 were 5412 kg. in 2007-13812 kg).