Fighting against Greenwashing

Hi! Welcome back to another blog! Today I’ll be talking about hotels.

Many people define sustainable tourism as tourism that takes the economic, social and environmental situation of the current generation and future generation into account and caters to the needs of both hosts and tourists. But, does sustainable tourism actually exist in the case of hotels?

Firms usually have profit making motives and these tourist companies and hotels are no exception. In an eco-resort in Southeast Asia, despite their efforts in conservation of coral reefs, the hotel still used single use plastic bottled soap and cleaning chemicals that were harmful to wildlife.  This makes me wonder, what is considered as sustainable tourism? These hotels are being sustainable in their practices to a certain extent. What criteria must be hit for a hotel to be considered as an eco-resort?

To me I trust that it is difficult for hotels to fully go sustainable as they need to profit so that they can ensure that they do not shut down. At the same time, not all guests may appreciate sustainable alternatives such as water fountains and reusable soap containers compared to the more convenient plastic water bottles and single use plastic soap bottles. Hotels are customer-oriented businesses that cater to customers and hence they may choose to keep convenience over sustainability.

Some hotels may also be greenwashing tourists. Tourists may feel better when they stay in environmentally friendly accommodation. If I were to pick between an eco-friendly five-star hotel versus a normal five-star hotel, I would pick the eco-friendly five-star hotel. Instead of using the hotel’s spendings to switch to more green initiatives, some hotels may instead invest in promoting themselves as “sustainable” to gain a comparative edge over other hotels. I do not blame the hotels for doing so as there is no specific criteria for a hotel to be considered as eco-friendly. If a hotel does the towel and linen policy but at the same time uses single use plastic soap bottles, they are still being eco-friendly to a certain extent.

I am certain that we as travelers can put a stop to this. If we do our research and find out the hotels that are playing an active role in being sustainable constantly throughout their hotel and support these hotels, I believe that other hotels will step up and follow in these hotels’ footsteps to becoming greener. This is because hotels will cater to the taste and preferences of customers.

Another possible way is that a measurement model to measure ecotourism can be created for not only hotels but also tourist spots. This ensures that the risk of greenwashing is lower and tourists can easily find out if the hotel they are considering is actually playing an active role in being sustainable.

Let’s do our part in creating a more eco-friendly world!

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