ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE ACCOMMODATIONS

202 Pages·2008·1.6 MB·English

by  Mechelle Nicole Best

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE ACCOMMODATIONS SECTOR IN THE
ANGLOPHONE CARIBBEAN

By

MECHELLE NICOLE BEST

A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2008
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© 2008 Mechelle Nicole Best

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To my mother, Althea and sister, Harriet. Your unwavering support means more than I can ever
express.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank God for continuing to bless me and for the opportune reminders that my burdens
only seem to be more than I can bear. I also thank my family (the Best a person could have) and
friends for being stalwart in their support. For all those times when the light at the end of the
tunnel appeared dim or non-existent, they saw it for me; their confidence in my abilities
continues to astound me.
I thank my committee for supporting me through my time at the University of Florida, in
particular for giving the nod to my research which was along a road less traveled. I thank my
committee chair Dr. Brijesh Thapa, simply for being himself. Brij exemplifies attention to detail,
that element that I’ve always believed separates excellence from being merely good. Brij was
meticulous in his guidance of my research, yet at the same time retained his easy going nature
which has encouraged so many graduate students within and outside our department. I am very
fortunate to have had a chair who willingly gave up nights and weekends to ensure I met my
deadlines.
I thank Dr. Taylor Stein for agreeing to sit on my committee without having met me, for
introducing me to benefits-based management, extension service, Jackson County and nature-
based tourism in the state of Florida, and for being the coolest boss ever. Taylor’s readiness to
acknowledge the work of others is a truly remarkable trait.
I thank Dr. John Confer for guiding me through the initial years of this PhD program, for
sharing his Ecotourism course with me, and for introducing me to diffusion of innovations
theory. I also thank him for his quiet words of encouragement in the last two years and for being
so very generous with his praise.
Finally, I thank Dr. Stephen Holland for his very practical approach to research, for his
useful comments on the development of this particular study, and for giving praise whenever he
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felt it was due. I also thank Dr. Holland for his wry sense of humor which I glimpsed for the
first time on my introductory trip to Jackson County.
December through March is a very busy time in the Caribbean hotel industry and I am
grateful to Caribbean hoteliers for reminding me that their interest in our industry extends way
beyond the day to day operations of their properties. I therefore thank them for participating in
my study. I also thank the Executive Vice President and the Chairman of the Sustainable
Development Committee of the Bahamas Hotel Association, along with the Executive Vice
Presidents of the Anguilla Hotel & Tourism Association, the Grenada Hotel & Tourism
Association, and the St. Kitts & Nevis Hotel & Tourism Association for encouraging their
members to participate in the study. Finally I thank my friends and colleagues from around the
region for helping me to ‘ground truth’ the information in my database.
I thank the US Department of State’s Fulbright Program and the Organization of American
States for funding my first two years of study through the Fulbright/OAS Ecology Scholarship
for the Eastern Caribbean. I am also grateful to my department, the Department of Tourism,
Recreation & Sport Management for granting me a graduate teaching assistantship to facilitate
my final two years at the University of Florida.
It would be remiss of me to omit my Caribbean Posse in Gainesville. I thank them for
keeping me sane with their insanity, for helping me to stay current with the affairs of the world,
for the application of their finely tuned scientific minds to everyday events, and for slaking my
thirst for all things Caribbean. I’d like to specially thank Cindy, for traveling with me across the
state of Florida for research and other purposes, and Grace-Anne, my Stats Guru.
It is very difficult to lose faith when one is surrounded by the faithful. I am very grateful to
all who have helped me to keep the faith.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...............................................................................................................4
LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................9
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................................12
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................13
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................15
Statement of Problem.............................................................................................................18
Theoretical Foundation...........................................................................................................20
Contribution of Study.............................................................................................................22
Purpose of Study.....................................................................................................................24
Research Questions.................................................................................................................25
Environmental Management...........................................................................................25
Environmental Management Outcomes..........................................................................25
Environmental Management and Outcomes...................................................................26
Definitions..............................................................................................................................26
2 LITERATURE REVIEW.......................................................................................................29
Tourism and the Environment................................................................................................29
Sustainable Tourism...............................................................................................................37
Environmental Management in Business...............................................................................39
Environmental Management in the Accommodations Sector................................................43
Motives............................................................................................................................46
Facilitators.......................................................................................................................49
Constraints.......................................................................................................................50
Outcomes.........................................................................................................................53
Environmental Management Systems and Certification.................................................54
Hospitality and Tourism in the Caribbean..............................................................................57
Environmental Management in the Caribbean Accommodations Sector...............................59
Diffusion of Innovations Theory............................................................................................61
Applications of Diffusion of Innovation.........................................................................65
Gaps in Diffusion of Innovation Research......................................................................68
Summary.................................................................................................................................69
3 METHODS.............................................................................................................................77
Study Sites..............................................................................................................................77
Selection of Participants.........................................................................................................78
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Data Collection.......................................................................................................................79
Instrumentation.......................................................................................................................81
Environmental Management...........................................................................................81
Motives............................................................................................................................82
Facilitators.......................................................................................................................82
Constraints.......................................................................................................................82
Outcomes.........................................................................................................................83
Treatment of Data...................................................................................................................83
Environmental Management...........................................................................................84
Environmental Management Outcomes..........................................................................85
Environmental Management and Outcomes...................................................................85
4 RESULTS...............................................................................................................................91
Profile of Participants and Hotels...........................................................................................91
Environmental Management...................................................................................................93
Frequencies of Variables........................................................................................................94
Motives............................................................................................................................94
Facilitators.......................................................................................................................95
Constraints.......................................................................................................................97
Outcomes.........................................................................................................................98
Results of Research Questions Tested..................................................................................100
Environmental Management.........................................................................................100
Environmental Management Outcomes........................................................................110
Environmental Management and Outcomes.................................................................111
5 DISCUSSION.......................................................................................................................133
Summary of Results..............................................................................................................133
Diffusion of Environmental Management in the Accommodations Sector..........................135
Hotel Characteristics.............................................................................................................138
Motives for Environmental Management.............................................................................139
Facilitators of Environmental Management.........................................................................142
Constraints to Environmental Management.........................................................................144
Outcomes of Environmental Management...........................................................................146
Theoretical Implications.......................................................................................................148
Management and Policy Implications..................................................................................149
Delimitations.........................................................................................................................152
Limitations............................................................................................................................152
Future Work..........................................................................................................................154

APPENDIX
A SURVEY INSTRUMENT....................................................................................................156
B LETTER FROM THE BAHAMAS HOTEL ASSOCIATION............................................175
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C CONTACTS WITH HOTELS.............................................................................................176
D ADDITIONAL COMMENTS FROM RESPONDENTS....................................................179
LIST OF REFERENCES.............................................................................................................191
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.......................................................................................................202

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LIST OF TABLES
Table page

2-1. Stayover tourists and economic contribution in selected Caribbean destinations in
2006....................................................................................................................................73
2-2. Caribbean tourist arrivals by primary market........................................................................73
2-3. Adoption of cleaner technologies in Caribbean hotels..........................................................74
3-1. Accommodations in the Anglophone Caribbean....................................................................87
3-2. All-Inclusive hotels in the English Caribbean 1993 & 1999.................................................87
3-3. Consumption of goods and services by the Caribbean accommodations sector....................88
3-4. Questionnaire Distribution....................................................................................................88
3-5. Levels of environmental management....................................................................................88
3-6. Motives for implementing environmental management.........................................................89
3-7. Facilitators of environmental management...........................................................................89
3-8. Constraints to implementing environmental management....................................................90
3-9. Outcomes of environmental management.............................................................................90
4-1. Hotels participating in survey..............................................................................................112
4-2. Profile of respondents..........................................................................................................112
4-3. Profile of hotels...................................................................................................................113
4-4. Hotels’ organization membership........................................................................................114
4-5. Importance of natural environment in the accommodations sector (frequency in
percentage).......................................................................................................................114
4-6. Level of familiarity with environmental management in the accommodations sector........114
4-7. Decades of environmental management implementation....................................................114
4-8. Levels of environmental management in place in hotels....................................................115
4-9. Types of environmental management certification.............................................................115
4-10. Budget allocations for environmental management..........................................................115
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4-11. Motives for implementing environmental management (percentage)................................116
4-12. Facilitators of environmental management (percentage)..................................................116
4-13. Constraints to environmental management (percentage)..................................................117
4-14. Outcomes of environmental management (percentage)....................................................118
4-15. Property type and environmental management in place....................................................118
4-16. Property size and environmental management in place....................................................119
4-17. Property ownership and environmental management in place..........................................119
4-18. Guest origin and environmental management in place.....................................................119
4-19. Organization membership and environmental management in place................................120
4-20. Importance of the natural environment to the accommodations sector.............................121
4-21. Constraints to environmental management.......................................................................121
4-22. Lvel of environmental management regressed on hotel characteristics............................122
4-23. Regression of level of environmental management on motives........................................122
4-24. Reliability analysis for factors of motives for implementing environmental
management.....................................................................................................................123
4-25. Factor analysis of motives for environmental management..............................................123
4-26. Regression of level of environmental management on motives factors.............................123
4-27. Level of environmental management regressed on facilitators.........................................124
4-28. Factor analysis of facilitators of environmental management...........................................124
4-29. Reliability analysis for factors of facilitators of environmental management...................125
4-30. Regression of level of environmental management on facilitators factors.......................125
4-31. Level of environmental management regressed on constraints.........................................126
4-32. Factor analysis of constraints to environmental management...........................................127
4-33. Reliability analysis for factors of facilitators of environmental management...................128
4-34. Regression of environmental management on constraints factors....................................128
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