Environmental Sustainability Practices Implemented by South Africa’s Leading Accommodation Establishments

1. Introduction

Ecologically conscious tourism is a growing trend in the travel industry, with ‘woke’ global travellers choosing accommodations and services that support green issues, fair trade, and local community-based initiatives; hence, today’s eco-tourists are choosing solar power, dry toilet systems, and creating local employment opportunities over free Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, television, and mini-fridges [1]. Goeldner and Ritchie [2] explained tourism as processes, activities, and outcomes arising from the relationships and interaction among tourists, tourism suppliers, host governments, host communities, and surrounding environments that are involved in attracting and hosting visitors. Van der Zee and Vanneste [3] also described tourism as a momentary interaction concerning visitors and a hosting destination made up of unified stakeholders, partially or fully related to tourism. Many stakeholders, inclusive of public and private organisations, are involved in tourism, providing services, infrastructure, and information, and primary and secondary tourist products that are vital for a successful tourism destination.

Ever since the Brundtland Report release in 1987, sustainable tourism has appeared as a dominant pattern in tourism development [4]. Despite the infancy of sustainable tourism (as it only emerged in the late 1980s), the sector has moved quickly from its original focus, which was fundamentally economic benefits, to a position of recognising its wider sustainability obligations [5]. According to the Centre for Responsible Travel [6], sustainable tourism can be described as tourism that motivates good practices of managing resources in a manner that economic, social, and aesthetic needs are fulfilled while still upholding cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity, and life support systems. Sustainable tourism includes the managerial and developmental practices of tourism that preserve natural, economic, and social integrity and ensure the maintenance of natural and cultural resources [7].

As noted by Edgell [8], consumers of tourism across the world currently demand improved tourism services coupled with destination uniqueness and flexibility in tourism offerings, but above this, tourism consumers are also expecting a clean environment and tourism packages that include culture, heritage, and history. Growth relating to a more sustainable tourism sector at organisational levels has not been fast, regardless of many studies that have published and established a variety of sustainable tourism indicators. Again, organisations have been exposed to a wide range of choices, which sometimes lead to an inability to act, poor decision-making, or not knowing the easier option [9]. For example, environmental issues in the tourism and hospitality businesses include corporate strategy, which comprises new green businesses and implications of the environmental issues on the attractiveness of traditional tourism activities; a competitive business strategy, which focuses on differentiation and reduction of costs through environmental management; a functional strategy, which looks into eco-labels, certifications, and environmental management systems, green marketing, responsible supply chain and training [10].

In terms of accommodation establishments, some of today’s scholars have expanded knowledge in this area by classifying sustainability issues in lodging facilities into five categories namely, energy and environment, sustainable and local procurement, social and culture, people, and risk and resilience management. Table 1 provides details of the five categories.

Table 1 provides information relating to activities that the hospitality sector managers can engage in to drive towards sustainable operations rooted in the three pillars of sustainable development and also highly aligned with the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3, SDG 6, SDG 7, SDG 8, SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, SDG 14, and SDG 15) [12]. Table 2 specifically identified these SDGs:

It can be observed that Table 2 tapped into a wide range of goals, and this is because tourism sustainability is determined by the perspective of all stakeholders building up the industry, and these include tourists, domestic residents, industries, government, and non-governmental organisations [13]. Tourism sustainability could be appraised in terms of the undertakings of humans and the biological diversity of the environment, thus, the World Tourism Organisation [14] recommends that countries should:

• Identify better ways how to make use of natural resources that are regarded essential in tourism development; making use of better and improved ecological processes, and maintaining the conservation of biodiversity;

• Protect the social and cultural authenticity of local people while conserving their constructions, cultural heritage, and traditional values, and

• Ensure sustainable economic activities, facilitating a fair distribution of socio-economic benefits at all levels in the general public, maintenance of reliable employment and revenue, and social services to the population, and persuading poverty eradication.

If planned well in collaboration with all the stakeholders and sustainable development principles, tourism can be instrumental by providing jobs and economic opportunities, promoting social integration, raising awareness of cultural and environmental values, helping to put together strategies for managing protected areas, and preserving biological diversity [15]. Again, development of sustainable tourism requires strong collaborations with multiple stakeholders, including connected parties, involving all societal aspects, stakeholders, tourism actors, and the government, to increase security and comfort of tourists [16].

According to Morelli [17], the definition of environmental sustainability starts with the connection between human needs and ecosystem services; meeting human needs without compromising the health of the ecosystems. Over the past years, there has been a growing public and government concern for the environment and increasing pressure on organisations to lessen environmental impact in their escalating operations [18]. Even today, businesses are still under government and clientele pressure to conform and invest in friendly environmental sustainability practices, hence, pushing some businesses to set ambitious targets to display their strong commitment to addressing climate change challenges [19].

When explaining the connection between the environment and tourism, it is important to note the difference between environment-sensitive tourism and environment-dependent tourism. Environment-sensitive tourism refers to the activity of reducing the environmental impacts of tourism, while environment-dependent tourism refers to the use of the environment as a resource base for tourism [20]. Sustainable environmental tourism is sometimes termed ‘eco-tourism’ or ‘green tourism’ [20]. A study by Tien-Ming and Homer [21] has shown that today’s tourists are attracted to environmentally sustainable locations and that tourist’s behaviour towards environmental sustainability is stronger in such locations. For example, there has been an increasing concern emanating from the lodging facilities clientele which demonstrates a growing inclination towards seeking sustainable tourism experiences and advocating for the adoption of sustainable operations and procedures within lodging facilities [22].

It is evident according to the literature that, for the tourism industry to thrive, it must be environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable; meaning there should be a balance between these three key elements. Sustainability remains one of the most common issues of discussion within the hotel industry [23], and, to expand this body of knowledge, the aim of this study therefore is to identify the strategies (similar and unique) implemented by some accommodation establishments to promote environmental sustainability. The results of this study shall serve as a guiding tool for accommodation establishments aspiring to become environmentally sustainable, especially those based in developing countries. Five South African-based accommodation establishments shall play as key informants in this study. The reason behind using South Africa’s establishments lies in the fact that South Africa receives a higher number of tourists across the world and has been ranked as one of Africa’s leading countries in tourism competitiveness since 2007 to date [24, 25, 26, 27].

2. Methodology

A literature review approach was adopted in this study through the analysis of secondary data. As noted by Snyder [28], a literature review approach can be adopted to determine new information and guide policy formulation and implementation. The study adopted a systematic literature review approach to provide meaningful findings. The aim of a systematic review is to uncover a set of empirical evidence that matches the pre-established standards to answer the set research question, and this technique can lower bias and provide reliable findings [29]. For the purpose of the study, empirical data was collected mainly through websites and reports as these appeared to be the only sources of information regarding eco-friendly practices, and their execution was not validated through observations. To enable identification of the main themes, the data were analysed to determine the common strategies used by the accommodation establishments and also to identify the unique strategies that these businesses are practicing to promote environmental sustainability.

It is acknowledged that some important information in relation to the topic under investigation could have been omitted due to the fact that the study mainly relied on hotel websites as the main source of information, and thus, could have provided limited information to draw well-informed findings. The government of South Africa’s official websites and reports, however, do not report individual hotels progress relating to environmentally sustainable initiatives; hence the study relied on information from the hotels’ websites and reports.

3. Sustainable practices in South Africa

Accommodation establishments offer a base from which tourists engage in the process of staying at a location [30]. It is important for lodging facilities to adopt environmentally sustainable practices [31]; therefore, pressuring leading global accommodation organisations are positioned well to provide a leadership role in upscaling sustainability [32]. According to Olya et al. [33], environmental dimensions play a key role in visitors’ satisfaction and loyalty, hence, environmental sustainability remains one of the priority subjects commonly discussed within the accommodation industry [23].

South Africa, with its diverse environment and cultures, is ahead of the global pack in many ways. Hotels (both luxury and budget), nature reserves, and short-term urban accommodations are all putting their best, and greener, foot forward in offering quality, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly service [1]. Therefore, the five of the best South African green hotels, rated by local and international tourists on websites such as TripAdvisor, CNN Travel, and Facebook are Teniqua Treetops (Table 3), Bulungula Lodge (Table 4) Wild Coast in the Eastern Cape, The Peech (Table 5) in Gauteng Johannesburg, iKhayalamafu (Table 6) in the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal, Oyster Box Hotel (Table 7) in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal, and Garden Route in the Western Cape [1]. Three of the assessed hotels are 5-star hotels and the rest are 3- and 2-star resort and lodge, respectively.

4. Results and discussion

The study findings are presented in this section, and are organised into water conservation practices, wastewater management, energy conservation and solid waste management (Table 8).

5. Conclusion

The study has established that the reviewed South African accommodation establishments utilise four major areas of sustainability, water conservation, wastewater management, energy conservation, and solid waste management. The areas that are least reported and deemed to be less practiced are air pollution abatement (both indoor and outdoor), enrichment of biodiversity, sustainable means of transportation, operational changes, and environmental education to employees. Furthermore, all accommodation establishments herein do not have sustainability policies in place, and for those that might have them, they are not well-articulated on their websites in order to attract guests to clean, safe and healthy environments. All these practices concur with the views that in hotel facilities, environmental sustainability could be attained through sustainable energy and environment management practices that deliver resolutions for sustainable energy, water and waste management, environment protection, and carbon management [11].

6. Recommendations

The study recommends that the hotels revise their environmental sustainability strategies, so as to incorporate air pollution control and biodiversity in their expedition to practice sustainable tourism. This is owing to realisation that their operations are emitters of GHGs that drastically degrade the environment [59]. Adopting eco-friendly practices in the accommodation sector could offer benefits such as a reduction in utility-maintenance, and tax bills. Further, adoption of eco-friendly practices could enhance the brand image as well as the reputation of establishments, attract a higher number of green customers, earn eco-friendly incentives, and also lead to a reduction in operational costs [60]. Through a qualitative research method, future research could engage hotel managers to identify their attitudes towards eco-friendly practices as a literature review approach method in this regard could provide insufficient data to draw appropriate conclusions therein. Future research on perspectives of guests could also be a key area to explore in order to establish guests’ expectations on sustainable practices that could be implemented by the accommodation establishments. A study in this area could provide more knowledge on better eco-friendly practices to improve client satisfaction and to become guests’ first choice accommodation establishment. Finally, views from establishments’ employees could also be included in future research since they could be facing challenges in implementing sustainability policies and might therefore need some education on eco-tourism, and how they could be engaged to ensure proper implementation of all aspects of sustainable tourism.

The limitations of the study were identified to be limited information relating to the sustainable environmental strategies employed by identified accommodation establishments due to limited data sources and the verification of collected data from the establishments’ reports and websites.