Challenges in maintaining the green certification in Sri Lankan hotel sector

Abstract

Green Certification towards the sustainable concept has become a remarkable area in the hotel industry. Sustainable concept is no more new for the hoteliers and sightseers seek greener of the accommodation prior to arrival. Green Certification is contributing towards creating an environment friendly hotel by integrating the sustainability concept. Most of the hoteliers perceive that the Green Certification is a marketing tool which increases the customer demand as well as profit. Also, it is kind of aggressive tools which can contribute to competitiveness in a successful manner. Some people are saying that the Green Certification is one of the energy saving mechanisms because it directly focuses towards energy saving aspects. Even though Green Certification is more important for the hotel sector, there may be some challenges when maintaining the Green certification. Therefore, investigating those challenges is an essential requirement for entire hotel sector towards the continuation of the Green certification. Hence, the aim of this study has been initiated to investigate the challenges in maintaining Green Certification in the hotel sector in Sri Lanka. A qualitative research approach was followed to investigate the challenges in maintaining Green Certification in Sri Lankan hotel sector and twelve individuals were interviewed from three cases to obtain data for the research. Semi-structured interviews were carried out as data collection method and the collected data were subjected to cross case analysis to investigate challenges. Eventually, the outcomes of this study demonstrated that there are several challenges in maintaining Green Certification and it was explored under five categories, namely technical, managerial, political and legal, environmental and biological, social and cultural.