Pathway to Environment Management in Hotel Industry: A Stakeholder Engagement Framework

The hotel industry plays a crucial role in the global tourism sector, and with increasing awareness of environmental issues, it is essential for hotels to actively engage in sustainability management. The existing literature offers limited insights into how the stakeholders of hotels can contribute more to improve the EM in the hotel industry. Embracing stakeholder engagement can empower hotels to strategically tackle environmental sustainability challenges through collaborative efforts with diverse stakeholders. This engagement involves identifying and actively engaging key stakeholders such as hotel owners, employees, customers, local communities, suppliers, and government agencies. This study aims to explore stakeholder engagement in driving effective environmental sustainability initiatives within the hotel industry. By conducting in-depth interviews, observations, and on-site observations in three cities in China, the study uncovers the distinct roles and engagement pathways of different stakeholders groups concerning hotel environment management. Th proposed stakeholder engagement framework elaborates the intricate relationships and inter-dependencies between various stakeholders, and their engagement in hotel environment management.