People's Motivation, Constraints and Willingness to Pay for Green Hotels

IntroductionAccording to the Green Hotels Association (2014), green hotels are eco-friendly lodging properties that implement a number of programmes designed to protect the environment, such as conserving water and energy, reducing solid waste, recycling durable items (e.g. bins, towels), limiting disposable supplies, etc. Such eco-friendly operation of a hotel can be beneficial both for the environment and the hotel, as it decreases the firms resource and energy intensity, which in turn may increase its operating revenue (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007; Han and Kim, 2010). Often eco-friendly practices are combined with other activities of corporate social responsibility, such as educating the staff on the importance of preserving the environment, donating materials to charities, etc.During the recent years, public concern for the environment has become more prominent, with many people recognising the seriousness of environmental problems. This concern has also spilled into the tourism industry. According to the UNEP and UNWTO, the hotel industry is responsible for about 21% of all CO2 emissions related to tourism (UNEP and UNWTO, 2012). Hence, concern for the environment has entered the consumers' choices in the marketplace (Kalafatis et al., 1999; Kuneva, 2009; Accenture, 2012; Fotiadis, Vassiliadis, and Rekleitis, 2013; Vassiliadis, Fotiadis, & Piper, 2013). More and more customers prefer the services of environmentally responsible companies that meet customers' green requirements. This positively affects the customers' willingness to pay for eco-friendly services (Accenture, 2012). Consequently, going green is believed to be an effective competitive edge in the lodging market (Manaktola and Jauhari, 2007; Wolfe and Shanklin, 2001; Han et al., 2009; Fotiadis, 2011; Fotiadis and Vassiliadis, 2010; Fotiadis, Vassiliadis, and Piper, 2013).In addition for possible reduction of operating costs, and genuine care for the environment, other motivations exist for hotels to become green and for customers to pay for the services of green hotels. These include improved public image of the hotel (Lin et al., 2007; Han et al., 2009; Best and Thapa, 2013), social pressure and recommendations from the tourists' friends (Chen and Tung, 2014; Chen and Peng, 2012), ease of access (Han et al., 2010; Chen and Tung, 2014), etc. However, tourists also face constraints to choosing green hotels; there include higher prices of the hotels' services (Dalton et al., 2008Han et al., 2009; Kang et al., 2012), which may require a larger income (Im et al., 2003; Kang et al., 2012), and lack/difficulty to access the information on green hotels (Han et al., 2010). In addition to the motivation and constraints mentioned above, researched have shown that some other characteristics of tourists, such as age (Im et al., 2003; Han et al., 2009) and gender (Han et al., 2009), can also influence their intention to visit green hotels.Hence, the literature would benefit considerably from a comprehensive study that would consider various demographic characteristics of tourists, their motivation, constraints, and willingness to pay for the services of green hotels. The current study includes this variety of factors and investigates the relationships among them. The authors also provided some suggestions on developing the industry.Literature reviewSeveral researchers consider the motivations of hotels to become green (e.g., Bohdanovicz, 2006; Lee and Park, 2009; Chou et al., 2012), and they have found that the main motivations are reducing operating costs, promoting public image, and gaining a competitive advantage. Others scholars investigate the factors affecting the behaviour of the hotels' customers (e.g. Han et al., 2011; Kang et al., 2012; Chen and Tung, 2014), which is mainly affected by their attitude to environmental conservation, income, gender, and social pressure.Importance of green hotels has been gaining significance in Taiwan as well as in other countries. …