COMPARISONS OF STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN NAPLES

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1 COMPARISONS OF STAKEHOLDER PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM IN NAPLES Claudio Quintano Margherita M. Pagliuca Monica Rosciano UDC :504(450) Received 15 March 2011 Revised 5 September September 2011 Abstract Sustainable tourism is a controversial issue in tourism literature. There are numerous definitions and many researches and analyses about sustainable tourism, but still there is no consensus and fully understanding of this term and its practical implementation. Sustainable tourism is characterized very often by its bottom up approach and stakeholders involvement in its realization is essential. Sustainable development of tourism depends on a set of policies and actions (labels and certifications like: ISO, Emas, Ecolabel) shared by all stakeholders. Eco-labels and certification schemes have been used to encourage the development of less-damaging and environmentally friendly hotels as well as to educate the customer. Against the background of the numerous academic literatures, this research aims to understand the perspectives of sustainable tourism development from stakeholders point of view. To this end an empirical research was carried out on the stakeholders of the tourism industry in Naples in order to: a. detect the level of general understanding of the sustainable tourism b. analyze the operators sustainable behavior c. measure the knowledge of quality labels and tourist certification. Keywords Sustainable tourism, Stakeholders perceptions and behavior, Quality label and certification 1. SUSTAINABLE TOURISM Tourism as a complex economic activity has multiple linkages to a wide range of other economic sectors and activities, thus having positive multiplier effects and a potential to act as a catalyst for economic development (Vellas, 2002). It offers opportunities for employment and income at a local level, spurring regional and local economic developments also for many small and distant places with limited other options for development. However, although tourism has economic benefits, it has significantly contributed to environmental degradation, negative social and cultural impacts and habitat fragmentation. In the latest years it is acknowledged that tourism can have positive, but also negative impacts on particular tourism destination. Tourism s unplanned growth has damaged the natural and socio-cultural environments of many destinations. Uncontrolled conventional tourism poses potential threats to many natural areas around the world. It can put enormous pressure on an area and lead to impacts such as soil erosion, increased pollution, discharges into the sea, natural habitat loss, increased pressure on 295 Electronic copy available at:

2 endangered species and heightened vulnerability to forest fires. It often puts a strain on water resources, and it can force local populations to compete for the use of critical resources. As a result, the notion of sustainable tourism emerges in order to conserve and preserve the natural resources, human well-being and long term economic viability of communities. The definition of sustainable tourism is fraught with difficulties. In spite of the numerous definitions found in the literature for sustainable tourism, it is a concept which still remains vague. Sustainable tourism is considered as a malleable concept, fitting different perceptions and adjustable enough to have different meanings to different people or groups (Farsari, Butler and Prastacos, 2007). The World Tourism Organization (WTO) defines sustainable tourism as that which meets the needs of the present tourists and host regions, while at the same time it protects and improves opportunities for the future. It focuses on the management of all the resources in such a way that all economic, social, and aesthetic needs are met while cultural integrity, key ecological processes, biodiversity, and life support systems are respected (WTO,1998). However, sustainability when applied to the tourism industry means that the use of tourism resources should have to be regulated so that they are not consumed, depleted or polluted in such a way as not to be available for use by future generations of tourists. Sustainable tourism, however, remains a barrage of principles and case studies that guide tourism development at various levels, from large resorts to limited size special interest tourism. The current trend therefore has been a paradigm shift in the industry from mass tourism and other unsustainable tourism practices to sustainable tourism development. Thus, it is necessary to develop tourism policies that guarantee the protection of natural, social and cultural resources and ensure that these resources can meet the needs of current and future residents and tourists (Blancas and al., 2009). Sustainable tourism provides one way to educate the community to protect and conserve the environment for both residents and tourists. A lack of community awareness and positive attitude towards sustainability in tourism is likely to lead to misrepresentation and abuse of the concept, and further depletion of the environment especially with mass tourism. However, since the early 1990s, tourism companies, mostly hotel facilities, have been adopting different voluntary initiatives to show their commitment to sustainable tourism. So far, undertaken actions focus almost exclusively on the environmental dimension of sustainability, and among the self-regulation instruments applied by the hotel industry the most common are codes of conduct, best environmental practices, eco-labels, environmental management systems (EMSs) and environmental performance indicators. 296 Electronic copy available at:

3 Beyond these good intentions, the hotel sector started in the 1990s to develop initiatives to promote the incorporation of best environmental practices into the business activity. Many hotel chains and individual hotels are applying some of the considered voluntary instruments. Moreover, in spite of the progress observed in the past years in the implementation of these environmental instruments, it is still a small percentage of the sector that implements the best environmental practices end/or formalizes these actions by means of a certifiable eco-label and/or EMS system. This fact indicates that hotels, even with available programmes of financial or technical aid, easily see little incentive or see too many practical problems for adopting a voluntary environmental strategy (Ayuso, 2006). 2. STAKEHOLDERS PERCEPTIONS In tourism academic literature many researchers acknowledge the importance of understanding the stakeholders perceptions for achieving sustainable tourism outcomes. Without stakeholder support in the community it is nearly impossible to develop tourism in a sustainable manner. Some authors found that the perceived impact was one of the main predictors for stakeholder support for sustainable tourism in their community. Therefore, a clear understanding of the stakeholders attitudes and interests is a necessary precursor to the planning and management of sustainable tourism (Byrd, Bosley, Dronberger, 2009). A stakeholders can be defined as: any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organizations objectives (Freeman, 1984). For tourism, the stakeholders include government officials, the local business owners, residents and visitors (Conaghan and Hanrahan, 2009). In general, there are four major tourism stakeholder perspectives: tourists, residents, entrepreneurs, and local government officials (Byrd, Bosley, Dronberger, 2009). In this respect, many researches (Hardy and Beeton, 2001) state that understanding stakeholders perceptions of sustainability is very important for understanding sustainable tourism outcomes at a given destination, because people s perceptions influence the pathway that is considered as appropriate for achieving sustainable outcomes. Although the importance of stakeholders points of view, rarely stakeholders positions are taken into account in researches and analyses of tourism development. The hotel industry has been traditionally considered one that does not have a great impact on the natural environment compared to manufacturing industry. However, it generates many more negative environmental impacts than are perceived by the public, consuming a vast amount of local and imported non-durable goods, energy and water, as well as emitting a large amount of carbon dioxide. As an emerging strategy, environmental management has increased its attraction by hotel managers because it encompasses the technical and organizational activities undertaken by the organization for the purpose of reducing these environmental impacts and minimizing their effects on the natural environment (Lopez-Gamero and al., 2010). The aim of this baseline 297 Electronic copy available at:

4 study is to identify hotel understanding of sustainable tourism as well as the perceptions of sustainable tourism practices in Naples. 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS The perceptions and attitudes of the managers of hotels were identified and recorded through a survey with the aims of: a. detecting the level of general understanding of the sustainable tourism b. analyzing the operators sustainable behaviors c. measuring the knowledge of quality labels and tourist certification Hotel industry in Naples In Naples there are 151 hotels according to the Local Tourist Board for 2010 (Tab. 1). They represent 9% of the regional and 0.4% of the national hotel industry. The luxury hotels (4-5 star hotels) are 31% of the total, the middle class hotels (3 star hotels) are 40% of the total, and 27% are one and two star hotels. The luxury categories are characterized by the majority of the rooms and bed places. Tab. 1: Hotels, Bed places and Rooms in Naples for category. Year 2010 Hotel Bed place Room Categor y Absolute Value Percentag e Value Absolute Value Percentag e Value Absolut e Value Percentag e Value 5 star 3 1, , ,26 4 star 44 29, ,39 3 star 63 41, , ,88 2 star 14 9, , ,99 1 star 27 17, , ,49 Total Source: Local Tourist Board, Data collection This survey can be defined a pretest because it was administered to a subset of hotels who works in Naples, in order to test for applicability, survey duration, and level of understanding. The survey was conducted in January The sample accounts for 22% of the Naples hotels, 46% both of the rooms and bed places. In detail, all the five star hotels, 39% of four star hotels, 18% of three star hotels and the 11% of lower classes (1 and 2 star hotels) were interviewed (Tab. 2). 298

5 Tab. 2: Hotels of the sample by category (percentage values). Year 2010 Category Hotel 5 star star 39 3 star 18 2 star 7 1 star 4 The interviews were concentrated in the three- to- five star hotels for two reasons. The first reason is that these categories correspond to establishments with more possibilities to apply environmental practices; the second one is that over 90% of the tourists lodged in these hotels (Tab. 3). Tab. 3: Arrivals and nights spent in Naples by category hotel. Year 2009 Arrivals Nights spent Category Percentage Absolute Value Absolute Value Percentage Value Value 4-5 star star star Total Source: Local Tourist Board, 2010 The data were collected through face-to-face interviews and through a questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into two sections. The first section consists of the questions related to stakeholders thinking about sustainable tourism development as terminology. The second section was about the adoption of voluntary sustainable practices (e.g. ecolabels, codes of conduct) by the hotels. 4. EXPLORING STAKEHOLDERS PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABLE TOURISM An understanding of stakeholder perceptions is an integral element in achieving sustainable tourism as it facilitates meeting subjective needs. Managers who are accountable for an aspect of organizational functioning have opportunities to influence the commitment of their organization, even in the environmental area, where external pressures are numerous and sometimes strong (Lopez-Gamero and al., 2010). The first aim of this research was to detect the level of general knowledge of the sustainable tourism. The majority of respondents (61%) gave a positive answer, while 39% gave a negative reply. 299

6 In detail, there are some differences according to the category of hotel: 5 and 3 star hotels have the highest value of negative answers, while 4, 2 and 1 star hotels are those with the highest value of positive answers (Tab. 4). Tab. 4: Do you know what sustainable tourism is. Category yes no 5 star star star star star Total One of the objectives of the survey was to detect and assess whether the concept of sustainable tourism experienced by the respondents is close to the most widely accepted international definition and to the principles that it contains. We have proposed, therefore, some definitions, and we have asked how much each of them approached the concept of sustainable tourism (we have deliberately included improper definitions). When the stakeholders were asked to express their opinion about the definition of sustainable tourism, the answers were very interesting. According to 75.8% of the respondents sustainable tourism is Respect and protection of the local identity. At the same time, while 69.7% did not draw to sustainable tourism the concept of Tourism that is self-sustaining (improper definition), almost 52% replied that the definition Public incentives to support the hotels (improper definition) is fairly or very close to the concept of sustainable tourism. Tab. 5: Definitions of sustainable tourism Definitions Little / not at all Fairly /a lot Respect and protection of the local identity Support to the local economy Tourism that is self-sustaining (improper definition) Eco tourism Disabled Facilities Public incentives to support the hotels (improper definition) Clearly, these stakeholders are confused about the concept of sustainable tourism. This research indicates that these hotels have a moderate understanding of sustainable tourism. 300

7 Although respondents attitude towards sustainable tourism is in favor of it, only 39% have a specific division devoted to it within the company. However 61% of respondents adopted actions about sustainability. Observation of the sustainable tourism practices revealed that the most popular practices 1 in Naples (Fig. 1 ) were Environmental Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) (27,3 per cent), quality brands (22,7 per cent), sustainable actions (18,2 per cent), ISO certification (13,16 per cent), ECOLABEL (9,1 per cent) and finally environmental training programs and ethic codes (4.5 per cent). Fig. 1: Sustainable tourism practices of hotels. Ethic codes Quality brands Environmental training programs Ecolabel EMAS ISO Certifications Sustainable actions 4,5 4,5 9,1 13,6 18,2 22,7 27, Many green hotel efforts (e.g. reusing towels, turning off lights) require consumers to be collaborators in the service process and can influence the tangible aspects of the guest experience. So, we have asked the managers hotel if their guests have an interest in sustainable tourism practices (Fig. 2). As a result, it brings out that guests are not aware of sustainable hotels initiatives. 1 ISO (International Organization for Standardization): is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards. EMAS: is a management tool for companies and other organizations to evaluate, report and improve their environmental performance. Ecolabel: a voluntary scheme, established in 1992 to encourage businesses to market products and services that are kinder to the environment. 301

8 Fig. 2: Guests interest in the sustainable tourism practices No Yes 45,4 54,6 Positive (and negative) guest experiences with programs such as recycling, reusing, water and energy conservation during the hotel stay would allow these consumers to later appreciate initiatives such as respect for cultural environment and ecological effort. This process would lead the consumer to a positive (negative) attitude toward the hotel property and potentially shape their belief of the hotel brand (Levy and Duverger, 2010). Finally, the majority of interviewees agreed that the adoption of sustainability activities can not provide a competitive advantage (Fig. 3). Fig. 3: Can the adoption of sustainability activities provide a competitive advantage? 45,5 54,5 No Yes 302

9 CONCLUSIONS AND REMARKS From the results of this survey, we can conclude that the sample of interviewed stakeholders is sensitive to the topic of the sustainable tourism. But, their awareness and knowledge of the sustainable tourism and certification programs is limited. Their perception is still incomplete and rather generic, with a low level of specific information. Even if there is not a specific division that deals with sustainability, the majority of managers of hotels are proactive in sustainable practices. This study highlighted moderate awareness of sustainable tourism practices as well as high level of confusion amongst the stakeholders due to the variety of activities. There is a big gap between what is expected and what is put into practice. This study was, however, exploratory and did not delve deep into the reasons for hotels activity or inactivity in sustainable management practices. Further education on sustainable tourism within this sector is obviously needed. People working in the tourism industry should have a better knowledge of sustainable tourism. The local institutions should organize training programmes for hotels managers on sustainable tourism practices. Beyond the need for stronger sustainability programmes, there is also ample space for communication and information targeted to tourists. So education of guests and staff on sustainable behaviour should be a major preoccupation of hotels. Laudable efforts of managers could come to nothing if guests and workers are not included. In conclusion, lodging awareness and knowledge of sustainable tourism is limited and this lack of knowledge will hinder efforts to promote sustainability within the city. Unless further and appropriate education is provided, the community will not obtain a proper understanding of sustainable tourism and misconceptions about this form of tourism are likely to continue (Ap and Pang, 2002). Perhaps through ongoing research and awareness of sustainable tourism certification amongst stakeholders of the industry, Naples could become a sustainable tourism destination. REFERENCES Ap J. and Pang D. (2002), Community Perception toward Eco-tourism. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Travel & Tourism Association Conference, Alexandria, USA. Ayuso S. (2006), Adoption of Voluntary Environmental tools for sustainable tourism: analyzing the experience of Spanish hotels, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment Management, Wiley InterScience. Blancas F.J. González M., Lozano-Oyola M., and Pérez F. (2009), The assessment of sustainable tourism: application to Spanish coastal destinations, Ecological Indicators, Vol. 10, Issue 2, pp Byrd E.T., Bosley H. E., and Dronberger M.G. (2009), Comparisons of stakeholder perceptions of tourism impact in rural eastern North Carolina, Tourism Management n. 30. Conaghan, A. and Hanrahan, J. (2009), Global Conformity of Indicators for Eco-Certification Programs. Tourism and Hospitality Research in Ireland Conference: Dublin Institute of Technology. Hardy A. and Beeton R. (2001), Sustainable tourism or maintainable tourism: managing resources for more than average outcomes, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, vol. 9, n. 3, pp

10 Farsari Y., Butler R. and Prastacos P. (2007), Sustainable tourism policy for Mediterranean destinations: issues and interrelationships. International Journal Tourism Policy, vol. 1, n. 1. Freeman R. E. (1984), Strategic Management: a Stakeholder Approach, Boston: Pitman. Levy S.E. and Duverger P. (2010), Consumer perceptions of sustainability in the lodging industry: examination of sustainable tourism criteria, International CHRIE Conference. Lopez-Gamero M. D., Molina-Azorín J. F., Claver-Cortes E. (2010), The relationship between managers environmental perceptions, environmental management and form performance in Spanish hotels: a whole framework. International Journal of tourism research, vol. 13, issue 2, pp Vellas F. (2002), Economie et Politique du Tourisme International, Paris: Economica. World Tourism Organization (1998), Guide for Local Planner Authorities in Developing Sustainable Tourism. Claudio Quintano, PhD, Full Professor Department of Statistics and Mathematics for the Economic Research University Parthenope Naples Italy Phone , fax 081/ claudio.qiuntano@uniparthenope.it Margherita M. Pagliuca, PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Statistics and Mathematics for the Economic Research University Parthenope Naples Italy. Phone , fax 081/ margherita.pagliuca@uniparthenope.it Monica Rosciano, PhD, Assistant Professor Department of Statistics and Mathematics for the Economic Research University Parthenope Naples Italy. Phone , fax 081/ monica.rosciano@uniparthenope.it 304