A comparative study on differences in sustainable development of hotels in Sweden and China

Abstract: This study mainly compares and analyzes the sustainable development measures of hotels in China and Sweden. In this study, purposive sampling method is adopted to select hotels in China and Sweden, and the data of sample hotels are coded and classified and then compared and analyzed according to different categories. According to the results of the study, there are two major differences in sustainability measures between Chinese and Swedish hotels. First, the text information shows that Chinese hotels pay more attention to the establishment of overall hotel management system, such as energy management system and water resource management system, than Swedish hotels. Second, Swedish hotels have a more mature thinking on sustainable development, which is reflected in the fact that the hotel puts itself in the process of social sustainable development, instead of treating the hotel group itself as an island. This can be well reflected by the hotel's measures on food. The hotel not only pays attention to the consumption of food in the hotel, but also pays attention to the early procurement and the disposal of the leftover food, which is also a combination of environmental sustainability and social sustainability. The main reason for the difference in sustainable development measures between hotels in China and Sweden can be attributed to the different social development conditions in the two countries. As a developed country, Sweden has good welfare policies to ensure the interests of vulnerable groups, which gives the country room to think beyond its economic interests. As China paid attention to economic development in the early stage, although the overall economic development is now in good condition, the basic living needs of people in some areas still need to be improved. In such an environment, the society itself pays attention to economic benefits and somehow ignores sustainable development. Consequently, the national group, as consumers, has no requirement for the sustainable development of enterprises. As a result, the driving force for the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises only comes from national policies.