Environmental management and sustainability have been recent important issues in various industries. Aside from the authorities' effort to improve tourism and hospitality offerings, the hospitality business should take responsibility for their actions and encourage environmental practices, so they could enjoy the benefits and at the same time protect the surroundings. There had been an argument that some hoteliers have not yet adopted environmental practices even in developed countries. While studies on the environmental practices by chained affiliated hotels are well established, yet research on Homestay operators particularly in Malaysia are limited and scarce. Thus, this paper conducted a preliminary investigation using a qualitative approach to understand the current environmental practices phenomenon at Homestay level. Four individuals representing Homestay operators from Homestays in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Perak were interviewed to gain insights on the matters. Consequently, this initial study has raised some issues in the Malaysian context. Thus it is deemed necessary to propose further empirical investigation and expected to be useful for tourism authorities, Homestay operators and local communities.
Afroz, R., Hassan, M. N., & Ibrahim, N. A. (2003). Review of air pollution and health impacts in Malaysia. Environmental research, 92(2), 71-77.
Ahmad, S. Z., Jabeen, F., & Khan, M. (2014). Entrepreneurs’ choice in business venture: Motivations for choosing home-stay accommodation businesses in Peninsular Malaysia. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, 31-40.
Ariff, N., Md Yassin, A., & Masram, H. (2015). Motivation towards homestay entrepreneurs: a case study in the state of Johor presented at 21st Pacific RIM Real Estate Society (PRRES 2015) Conference, Kuala Lumpur, 18 - 21 January 2015.
ASEAN. (2016). Asean Green Hotel Standard. The Asean Secretariat (pp. 1–108). Jakarta: Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Retrieved from http://www.asean.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/ASEAN-Green-Hotel-Standard.pdf
Babaei, A. A., Alavi, N., Goudarzi, G., Teymouri, P., Ahmadi, K., & Rafiee, M. (2015). Household recycling knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards solid waste management. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 102, 94 - 100.
Bagur-Femenias, L., Celma, D., & Patau, J. (2016). The adoption of environmental practices in small hotels. Voluntary or mandatory? An empirical approach. Sustainability, 8(7), 695.
Bernstad, A. (2014). Household food waste separation behavior and the importance of convenience. Waste management, 34(7), 1317-1323.
Borhan, H., & Ahmed, E. M. (2012). Green environment: assessment of income and water pollution in Malaysia. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 42, 166-174.
Brown, M. (1996). Environmental policy in the hotel sector: “green” strategy or stratagem?. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 8(3), 18-23.
Chan, E. S. (2011). Implementing environmental management systems in small and medium-sized hotels: Obstacles. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 35(1), 3-23.
Chan, E., S., W. (2008). Barriers to EMS in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27, 187–196.
Chan, E., S., W., Hon, A., H., Y., Chan, W., & Okumus, F. (2014). What drives employees' intentions to implement green practices in hotels? The role of knowledge, awareness, concern and ecological behavior. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 40, 20–28.
Daily Express Newspaper Online. (2016). Homestays must ensure cleanliness. Retrieved from http://dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=108624.
Doody, H. (2010). What Are The Barriers To Implementing Environmental Practices In The Irish Hospitality Industry?. In Tourism and Hospitality Research in Ireland Conference (THRIC).
Gabarda-Mallorquí, A., i Sansbelló, F., Maria, R., & Ribas Palom, A. (2018). Exploring Environmental Awareness and Behavior among Guests at Hotels That Apply Water-Saving Measures. Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, núm. 5, p. 1305.
Han, H., Hsu, L-T., & Sheu, C. (2010). Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to green hotel choice: Testing the effect of environmentally friendly activities. Tourism Management, 31, 325–334.
Han, H., Hsu, L-T., Lee, J-S., & Sheu, C. (2011). Are lodging customers ready to go green? An examination of attitudes, demographics, and eco-friendly intentions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30, 45–355.
Hassan, M. H., Hosseinpou, M., Nezakati, H., & Jofreh, M. (2015). Highlighting Influential Factor to Inculcate Green Behaviour. Journal of Applied Sciences, 15, 405-410.
Hu, Y-C., Wang, J-H., & Wang, R-Y. (2012). Evaluating the Performance of Taiwan Homestay Using Analytic Network Process, Mathematical Problems in Engineering: 1-24.
Ibrahim, Y., & Abdul Razzaq, A. R. (2010). Homestay Program and Rural Community Development in Malaysia, Journal of Ritsumeikan Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(2), 7-24.
Informer 1, Representatives of Homestay Pelegong, Labu Negeri Sembilan (27 February 2018). Personal interview.
Informer 2, Representatives of Homestay Kampung Sg. Lang Tengah (27 February 2018). Personal interview.
Informer 3
In-Text Citation: (Khan, Aziz, Saad, & Rahman, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Khan, N. F. A. H., Aziz, Y. A., Saad, R., & Rahman, A. A. (2018). Preliminary Investigation of Environmental Practices among Homestay Operators. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(15), 263–276.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
