An analysis of critical factors related to environmental education: Practices for hospitality management students, consumers, and managers

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the practice of environmental stewardship in the hospitality industry. The goal of this study is to examine the environmental attitudes of current hospitality leaders, hospitality management students and consumers within the phenomenon of environmental stewardship in the hospitality industry to determine if there is the need for environmental education and organizational training for managers, students, and consumers. More specifically, the intent of the current research is to (1) examine hospitality management students' level of environmental concern, (2) identify consumers' level of environmental concern and their attitudes toward environmental attributes in hotels, and (3) examine the environmental attitudes and ecocentric values of managers in the hospitality industry. The significance of the current research is three fold. First, in order for the hospitality industry to remain competitive and sustainable, environmentally-responsible behaviors need to happen. Second, consumers and current and future industry leaders all play a role in the success of responsible environmental management programs. Finally, pro-environmental attitudes and ecocentric values are indicators of the likelihood that environmentally-responsible behaviors will occur. The research framework is based on contemporary attitude theory. The sample populations included hospitality management students in a university setting, hospitality managers in the industry, and consumers. Data were collected using questionnaires and were analyzed using quantitative methods. Findings indicated that there is a low level of environmental concern among hospitality management students, indicating a lack of knowledge of environmental issues. Additional findings showed that those individuals with strong ecocentric values have a pro-environmental attitude, which in theory leads to environmentally responsible behavior. Finally, it was also found that the presence of an ecolabel had an effect on consumers' attitude toward a hotel's environmental management practices. Based on these findings a case is made for the inclusion of environmental education as it has been shown to raise an individual's level of environmental concern and therefore increasing the likelihood that environmentally responsible behaviors will occur.