Determination of managers' attitudes towards eco-labeling applied in the context of sustainable tourism and evaluation of the effects of eco-labeling on accommodation enterprises

Abstract

The attitudes of departmental managers towards eco-labels are extremely important for the realization of sustainable tourism practices in accommodation enterprises. Research focused on determining the attitudes of hotel managers towards eco-labels is very limited. Therefore, the first aim of this study was to determine the attitude of departmental managers towards eco-labels applied in the context of sustainable tourism. The second purpose of this study was to determine whether the sustainable tourism and management activities of accommodation enterprises that did and did not have an eco-label were differentiated. To this end, this study was designed and conducted with a sample of 408 hotel managers in 83 different accommodation enterprise. Data were collected through questionnaires using convenience sampling, which is a non-probability sampling method. As a result of this research, it was determined that the attitudes of managers towards eco-labels differed according to their personal and professional characteristics. Another important finding of this study was that the sustainable management and operation activities of the hotels differed significantly according to whether or not they were eco-labeled certified. Overall, it is obvious that eco-labels have a significant impact on the implementation of environmentally friendly, responsible, and sustainable tourism practices in the accommodation sector.