IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i20p8863-d1497721.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Sustainable Management of Ecohotels for the Support of Ecotourism—A Case Study

Author

Listed:
  • Henrieta Pavolová

    (Institute of Earth Resources, Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia)

  • Tomáš Bakalár

    (Institute of Earth Resources, Faculty of Mining, Ecology, Process Control and Geotechnologies, Technical University of Košice, Letná 9, 042 00 Košice, Slovakia)

  • Alexander Tokarčík

    (State Institute of Vocational Education, Stromová 2669/9, 831 01 Bratislava, Slovakia)

  • Iveta Cimboláková

    (Institute of Physical Education and Sport, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice, Ondavská 21, 040 11 Košice, Slovakia)

Abstract

Ecotourism represents a modern form of tourism that accepts the principles of sustainable development and the adequacy of the conditions of tourist destinations. The environmental awareness of all parties participating in tourism, objects, and subjects of tourism determines the development of ecotourism. Ecohotels, or “green hotels”, as an integral part of ecotourism, represent tourist accommodation facilities that have the “The Flower” certificate, their business activities minimize the impact on environmental quality. The management of ecohotels therefore implements programs and measures determining sustainable competitiveness at the local, regional, and supra-regional levels in the business in interaction with reducing the carbon footprint, water consumption, energy consumption, and waste production. They also support the use of recyclable materials and bio-products and the introduction of environmental management respecting the principles of green management in all areas of the tourism business. The competitiveness of ecohotels is in interaction with the willingness of tourists to use their pro-environmental services. The presented study is focused on the willingness of tourists to use the services of ecohotels, with an emphasis on identifying an effective strategy for supporting the development of ecotourism in the Slovak Republic. The study concentrates on the willingness of tourists to use ecohotels as part of their tourist activities based on a questionnaire survey. The study identifies the factors of strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats of the use of ecohotels by tourists in supporting the development of ecotourism. Through the exact quantification of the weights of individual factors in terms of Saaty’s matrix and a SWOT analysis, an effective strategy for the use of ecohotels in supporting the development of ecotourism is defined. In recent years, the stimulation and use of tourists’ interest in environmental quality, with an emphasis on reducing negative impacts on the environment, has resonated; thus, a model of effective marketing strategy is presented.

Suggested Citation

  • Henrieta Pavolová & Tomáš Bakalár & Alexander Tokarčík & Iveta Cimboláková, 2024. "The Sustainable Management of Ecohotels for the Support of Ecotourism—A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:20:p:8863-:d:1497721
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/8863/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/20/8863/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chih-Cheng Huang & Yung-Kuan Chan & Ming Yuan Hsieh, 2022. "Preliminary Research on the Sustainable Determinants of Taiwanese Ecotourism with the International Standards," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Chih-Cheng Huang & Shang-Pin Li & Yung-Kuan Chan & Ming-Yuan Hsieh & Jiin-Chyuan Mark Lai, 2023. "Empirical Research on the Sustainable Development of Ecotourism with Environmental Education Concepts," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-15, June.
    3. Tonino Pencarelli, 2020. "The digital revolution in the travel and tourism industry," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 455-476, September.
    4. Mara Ladu & Silvia Battino & Ginevra Balletto & Ainhoa Amaro García, 2023. "Green Infrastructure and Slow Tourism: A Methodological Approach for Mining Heritage Accessibility in the Sulcis-Iglesiente Bioregion (Sardinia, Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-24, March.
    5. Dimitris Damigos, 2023. "How Much Are Consumers Willing to Pay for a Greener Hotel Industry? A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-19, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. IokTeng Esther Kou, 2023. "“Technology Advances and Innovation in Wine Tourism: New Managerial Approaches and Cases”," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 477-479, September.
    2. Rocío González-Sánchez & Sara Alonso-Muñoz & María-Sonia Medina-Salgado & María Torrejón-Ramos, 2023. "Driving circular tourism pathways in the post-pandemic period: a research roadmap," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 17(3), pages 633-668, September.
    3. Sergej Gricar & Violeta Šugar & Jasmina Starc, 2023. "Interrelationships among Tourism, Economic, and Environmental Time Series—The Case of Slovenia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Ernesto D. R. Santibanez Gonzalez & Vinay Kandpal & Marcio Machado & Mauro Luiz Martens & Sushobhan Majumdar, 2023. "A Bibliometric Analysis of Circular Economies through Sustainable Smart Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Hang Song & Xincheng Zhang & Xinyang Wu, 2024. "Research on the Spatial-Temporal Evolution and Driving Mechanism of Coupling Coordination among Digital-Tourism-Environment in the Yellow River Basin," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-25, June.
    6. Mohammed Abdo Albaom & Fatimah Sidi & Marzanah A. Jabar & Rusli Abdullah & Iskandar Ishak & Nur Anita Yunikawati & Magistyo Purboyo Priambodo & Mohammed Saleh Nusari & Dhakir Abbas Ali, 2022. "The Moderating Role of Personal Innovativeness in Tourists’ Intention to Use Web 3.0 Based on Updated Information Systems Success Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-35, October.
    7. Xinyuan Zhang & Emmanuel Nketiah & Victor Shi & Jinfu Cheng, 2023. "Who Will Save Energy? An Extension of Social Cognitive Theory with Place Attachment to Understand Residents’ Energy-Saving Behaviors," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(1), pages 1-21, December.
    8. Youssef El Archi & Brahim Benbba & Kai Zhu & Zineb El Andaloussi & László Pataki & Lóránt Dénes Dávid, 2023. "Mapping the Nexus between Sustainability and Digitalization in Tourist Destinations: A Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Blanca Bernal & Nancy Montero & Sergio Vázquez, 2024. "A Comparative Study of the Tourism Carrying Capacity of the State of Baja California between 2019 and 2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-19, May.
    10. Salvatore Monaco & Giovanna Sacchi, 2023. "Travelling the Metaverse: Potential Benefits and Main Challenges for Tourism Sectors and Research Applications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-10, February.
    11. Yingtong Chen & Fei Wu & Dayong Zhang & Qiang Ji, 2024. "Tourism in pandemic: the role of digital travel vouchers in China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Mustafa Yeniasır & Burak Gökbulut, 2022. "Effectiveness of Usage of Digital Heritage in the Sustainability of Cultural Tourism on Islands: The Case of Northern Cyprus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, March.
    13. Ralf Buckley & Mary-Ann Cooper, 2021. "Assortative Matching of Tourists and Destinations: Agents or Algorithms?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-10, February.
    14. Yan Zhang & Jiekuan Zhang, 2024. "Examining the complex causal relationships between the digital economy and urban tourist destination competitiveness," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-28, August.
    15. Prateek Kalia & Dušan Mladenović & à ngel Acevedo-Duque, 2022. "Decoding the Trends and the Emerging Research Directions of Digital Tourism in the Last Three Decades: A Bibliometric Analysis," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, October.
    16. Hannes Thees & Elina Störmann & Franziska Thiele & Natalie Olbrich, 2021. "Shaping digitalization among German tourism service providers: Processes and implications," Post-Print hal-03373971, HAL.
    17. Canh P Nguyen, 2023. "Last chance to travel or safety first? The influence of exposure to natural hazards and coping capacities on tourism consumption," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(4), pages 952-985, June.
    18. Jorge Hochstetter-Diez & Marlene Negrier-Seguel & Mauricio Diéguez-Rebolledo & Felipe Vásquez-Morales & Lilliana Sancho-Chavarría, 2023. "Governance Democratic and Big Data: A Systematic Mapping Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-27, August.
    19. Thees, Hannes & Störmann, Elina & Thiele, Franziska & Olbrich, Natalie, 2021. "Shaping digitalization among German tourism service providers: Processes and implications," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 7, pages 3-15.
    20. Mario Bentivenga & Eva Pescatore & Marco Piccarreta & Fabrizio Terenzio Gizzi & Nicola Masini & Salvatore Ivo Giano, 2024. "Geoheritage and Geoconservation, from Theory to Practice: The Ghost Town of Craco (Matera District, Basilicata Region, Southern Italy)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-39, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ecohotel; ecotourism; ecolabel; SWOT;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:20:p:8863-:d:1497721. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.