Azilah Kasim

Managerial attitudes towards environmental management among small and medium hotels in Kuala Lumpur

Empirical work on the acceptance of environmental impacts and responsibilities by hotels in developing countries is still relatively rare. There is also little work on understanding the relationship between business and environment among small and medium hotel companies. This research helps fill the knowledge gap by providing information on the responsiveness of small and medium hotels towards environmental management within the context of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, It explores the awareness and attitudes of small and medium hotel managers towards environmental management and their opinion on how things can be improved. Questionnaires containing Likert scale questions, supplemented by open-ended questions, were personally administered to willing participants. The findings indicate that respondents generally tend to provide positive response to the Likert scale questions, but refused or were unable to give clear answers to the open-ended questions which were designed to explore further the answers they provided. In practice, managers also did not go beyond the basic common sense of cutting their water and energy costs. These indicate a lack of clear and adequate knowledge about environmental management, and their tendency to be “politically correct” in relation to environmental issues. The paper ends with recommendations on how to improve the environmental management knowledge and know-how among managers of small and medium hotels.

Towards a Wider Adoption of Environmental Responsibility in the Hotel Sector

ABSTRACT Hotels are an important sector in tourism. Though generally perceived as a smokeless sector, hotels actually interact with the environment particularly in terms of resource consumption. This article establishes a clearer link between the sector and sustainable development. It reveals the increasingly popular initiative to include environmental considerations in the operation of elite hotel chains and the barriers that may hamper a more prevalent practice of environmental responsibility among the small and medium size hotels. However, as hotel environmental responsibility ultimately contributes to the protection of natural beauty of destinations, therefore this article assumes an optimistic view believed essential when dealing with the issue. Several recommendations are made to encourage more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) participation in environmental responsibility.

Environmentally friendly practices among restaurants: drivers and barriers to change

This study of environmental management in the food service industry in general and the restaurant sector in particular highlights food services’ impacts on the environment, and drivers and barriers to change. The study is based on research in Penang, Malaysia, which included a personally assisted survey of 26 restaurant managers operating casual upscale businesses. The survey findings show that implementation of environmentally friendly practices is weak in the restaurant sector. While top managers claim to be informed and concerned about environmental issues, they are reluctant to invest in environmental management systems, to change practices, to advertise environmentally friendly products or invest in the implementation of environmentally friendly practices. They note barriers to change, including weakly enforced environmental laws and regulations, scarce and intermittent green supply chain, non-existent trade pressure and poor customer and community demand for restaurant business to implement green practices. A model of barriers and drivers leading to the implementation of environmentally friendly practices is presented in this study. Government intervention, including public education, capacity building and support in the trade and agricultural change to grow more organic crops, is suggested. The study depicts the responsiveness of restaurateurs towards the implementation of environmentally friendly practices in the context of a developing country.

The Importance of Water Management in Hotels: A Framework for Sustainability Through Innovation

This paper highlights the global phenomenon of the crisis in the quality and quantity of water supplies and how tourism generally and hotels specifically may have contributed to the situation. The major internal and external barriers for Small Medium Enterprises adopting Environmental Management Systems, including water, are listed. The paper proposes a water management framework for hotels and other types of accommodation that leverages on the concept of innovation. Taking into account the various levels of knowledge and technological capabilities in water management, the framework is developed based on the commonly known 3R approach in environmental management, with the addition of another R (Reaching). It is proposed that hotels can innovate and enhance their water management approaches under these 4Rs: Innovative Reducing, Innovative Reusing, Innovative Reaching and Innovative Recycling. The framework offers examples and strategies about how hotels of different sizes, with differing financial, technical, knowledge and managerial capacities could address the challenge of implementing water management and obtain commercial benefit. A detailed case study is provided of a gray and black water recycling system in a Malaysian resort. Other examples of a range of water management methods are also discussed.

Balancing Tourism and Religious Experience: Understanding Devotees' Perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia

Among the many personas of cultural heritage offered to global tourism, religious or faith-based tourism is perhaps the least prominent. However, this often-ignored component of tourism resources is turning into a booming business, as can be seen in the case of Mecca and Jerusalem. In essence, religious tourism is a good example of pro-poor tourism because it can generate good tourism income, develop the local economy, and bring about other possible benefits such as employment and local access to outside goods and services. However, the excitement of making profit from religious tourism should not be allowed to overshadow its traditional role of promoting spiritual healing and piety. This article argues that understanding the significance of a religious event amongst its followers will preserve the real purpose of religious travel and tourism and provide insights of a balanced management approach of a religious tourism destination. Using Malaysia as a study context, the article highlights qualitative findings from an open-ended questions survey on Hindu parents of University Utara Malaysia students. The findings highlight the meaning and importance of Thaipusam amongst the devotees, the balance of tourism and religious activities while at the sacred site as well as issues, concerns and improvements required to increase their quality of experience in Batu Caves. The article ends with a discussion on the implications of the findings on the management of a religious tourism destination.

Attracting tourists to travel companies’ websites: the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention

This article aims to examine the structural relationship between website brand, personal value, shopping experience, perceived risk and purchase intention from travel websites. Built upon the theory of consumers’ perceived risk, a theoretical model was proposed and a questionnaire was developed. The fieldwork utilized responses from 409 participants who purchased travel items from websites of Malaysian travel companies. Partial least square (PLS) path modelling approach, a variance-based structural equation modelling (VB-SEM), was used to assess the overall goodness-of-fit tests, measurement and structural model. The results highlight different aspects related to the effectiveness and attractiveness of travel companies’ websites. Its unique finding highlights the importance of personal value as a user characteristic factor that can strongly affect online purchase intention. In addition, by combining user characteristics and website characteristic and examining them in a single model, this study provides a clear multidimensional picture of causal relationship between latent constructs in an online travel purchase context. Theoretical and practical implications of study results are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Influence of recreation on education aspiration

In the wide context of travel and tourism, recreation plays a significant role in occupying holiday‐makers agenda, so much so that destination is often sought based on recreation activities it offers. Campus recreation for example, is a major component that influences the young when choosing the destination in which to pursue higher education. However, the truly‐important‐but‐often‐dismissed role of recreation is perhaps its value towards the intellectual development of youth. This special value is perhaps more apparent if we discuss it in the context of adolescents in a campus setting i.e. the students. This study is an attempt to examine the relationship between these two dimensions. Specially, it looked at the link between recreation and academic aspirations and achievement using a specific student population. Aspiration is measured by looking at an individuals attitudes, motivation and expectation with regard to formal education. Findings from the study indicated a strong relationship between intensity of recreation with aspiration. It is found that the more intense the recreation activity, the more positive the individuals aspiration towards in class learning is. However, the same cannot be concluded for relationship between intensity of recreation with academic achievement. This is because the study found that individuals who recreate most intensely do not show good academic achievement. The same scenario is also true for those who recreate least intensely. Individuals who showed the best academic achievement are found to be those who recreation intensity is comparatively moderate. The study provided several recommendations for the planning and provision of recreation activities in institutions of higher learning and emphasized the need for students to recognize the importance of balancing academic and nonacademic pursuit in their time management.

Environmental management system (EMS): Postulating the value of its adoption to organizational learning in hotels

Purpose – The paper aims to discuss the link or relationship between environmental management system (EMS) adoptions with organization learning (OL). It postulates that EMS adoption has the potential to catalyze organizational learning in hotels to make them more dynamic and competitive. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviewed the literature to link the purpose and steps involved in an EMS adoption with the benefit of managing organizational knowledge and OL. It also uses the literature to identify phases of learning in EMS adoption and the level of employees exposed to the learning. Findings – There are two reasons why more hotels should not be hesitant to adopt EMS: flexibility – EMS does not dictate the level of environmental performance a firm should achieve, thus giving hotel firms the flexibility to determine the level of sophistication of their environmental management; and the building of company’s dynamism – EMS facilitates organizational learning, leading to enhanced organizational perf...

Luring the tourists: A positioning exercise

Positioning is essential in most business to ensure competitiveness, survival and success. This is certainly true for tourism since attracting more revenues entails making tourism destinations more appealing to tourists. Responding to the increase recognition on the importance of positioning, this research was an attempt to carry out a positioning exercise for the state of Kedah via understanding the perception of its market. Among the objectives of this research was: to identify’ Kedahs competitors; to profile the international tourists and identify the segments that exists; to segment benefit sought and evaluate the attractiveness of the resulting segments and last but not least, to provide suggestions on how Kedah should position itself. Clustering analysis using Wards method revealed 5 distinct clusters representing the type of visitors visiting Kedah: the nature and enlightenment seekers; the social and comfort seekers, the conscientious tourists; the nonchalant and perplexing tourists; and the sedate and cultural tourists. The ranking ofKedah in relation to competitive by these segments, and an abstract measurement of Kedahs image further revealed that despite the many places of heritage in mainland Kedah and Langkawis portrayal as an Isle of Legend, Kedah has not been perceived as a destination for ‘culture’. Instead tourist sees it as a relaxing destination and a safe heaven. In addition, Kedah is also viewed as a destination that offers value for money with good facilities. In view of globalization and the resulting enhanced competition, This paper concludes that Kedah has to position itself differently based on its strength, perhaps by portraying the image of “the safe place to unwind”.

Impact of market orientation, organizational learning and market conditions on small and medium-size hospitality enterprises

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the impact of Market Orientations (MO), Organizational Learning (OL) and Market Conditions (MCs) on Firm Growth (FG), within the context of hospitality Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Entrepreneurs/managers were sampled using cluster-sampling technique and surveyed using a 5-point Likert type scale instrument. The questionnaire’s validity was determined by 1) expert opinions, and 2) pilot testing the instrument on a small group of target respondents. A total of 254 completed questionnaires were analyzed to test the research model using Structural Equation Modeling approach (SEM) via the Partial Least Squares (PLS) software. The findings reveal that MO has a strong influence on FG and that OL partially mediates the MO-FG relationship. However, MCs have no moderating influence on the OL-FG relationship. The paper then discusses the findings’ implications on theory and practice.