Applicability of circular economy principles in hospitality industry : consumers’ perspective

Currently, there is a great interest about world’s sustainability. With the advance of technology and population growth, the Circular Economy (CE) appeared as one “instrument” to move towards earth’s sustainability. Increasingly, the CE has the potential to be used as a tool in the hospitality indus...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor principal: Bica, Joana Maria Silva (author)
Formato: masterThesis
Idioma:eng
Publicado em: 2019
Assuntos:
Texto completo:http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/28399
País:Portugal
Oai:oai:repositorio.ucp.pt:10400.14/28399
Descrição
Resumo:Currently, there is a great interest about world’s sustainability. With the advance of technology and population growth, the Circular Economy (CE) appeared as one “instrument” to move towards earth’s sustainability. Increasingly, the CE has the potential to be used as a tool in the hospitality industry in combating the unsustainable consumption of energy, water and non-durable products. Governments are starting to apply new models and regulations to decrease pollution, mainly the carbon footprint. As a result, the hotel industry is also affected and is forced to change the consumption pattern, since is inserted in the tourism sector, which is one of the greatest economic sector in Europe, being a great producer of waste and a considerable water and energy consumer. Consequently, the final master dissertation was written taken into consideration the following research question, “What can be implemented in hotels, based on circular economy practices, taking into account what motivates consumers and what they are willing to accept?”. As the core of the dissertation, the research question was detached in several objectives, being mainly based on, exploring customers receptiveness, willingness to accept CE and green practices in hotels and characterizing the CE model, its advantages and practices that are adaptable to consumers. On one hand, a questionnaire was developed to retain primary data that resume consumers’ willingness and acceptance. On the other hand, a literature review was carried out, in order to highlight the main concepts discussed and analysed throughout the research, supporting the data collected in the consumers’ questionnaire. At the end, the objectives were individually answered and analysed and the questionnaire presented few conclusions regarding consumers motivations and willingness to accept circular and green practices on Hotels. In overall, consumers, mainly the Portuguese, are willing to accept green and circular practices in the hotel, however they are not ready to pay more and travel farther. Moreover, participants are concerned about future generations and mainly worried about water conservation, being the factors that most influence their decisions and choices. To conclude, women tended to have higher rate regarding the acceptance of green practices as well as youth.