Hospitality and Sustainability A case-study and comparison of the sustainability work by hotels in the Gothenburg area

Abstract: Background and problem: The growing worldwide tourism industry and its potential impact on the environment has become a hot topic within the global hospitality industry. There has been an increase in the consciousness of sustainability issues over the last decades amongst hoteliers and investors. The tourism and hospitality industry is the largest service industry in the world and in Gothenburg, which is one of the largest cities in the Nordic region, over 3,6 million hotel nights were spent in 2012. An effort to reduce the environmental impact from the hotels in Gothenburg can have a huge impact on both the environment and the hotels’ finance. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to illustrate how five hotels in Gothenburg work with sustainability issues and to compare their sustainability work with each other as well as the global hospitality industry. Method: A frame of reference was built by using previous research and theoretical literature on the subject. The empirical data was collected by conducting semi-structured qualitative interviews with employees at five different hotels in Gothenburg. Results and conclusion: What the hotels do for sustainability is very similar amongst the researched hotels but also compared to the global hotel industry. Almost all focus is put on the environmental aspect on sustainability and energy, water, waste and food are the areas that receive the most attention. Targets are commonly used to measure improvement in these areas and customers and costs are the two main motives to work with sustainability, both in Gothenburg and globally. Even though what the hotels do is very similar, they have different approaches to it depending on how much experience with sustainability work they have and what the ownership looks like. The major difference between the global industry and research area is the use of eco-labels, which is a vital part for the investigated hotels in Gothenburg. Limitations: The result of this thesis is based on the findings from a smaller group of hotels and therefore it might not reflect how all hotels in the Gothenburg area approach their sustainability efforts. Further research: We suggest that further research focus on how the social aspect of sustainability can receive more attention within the hospitality industry.