Business Environmental Responsibility in the Hospitality Industry

In this paper, the literature is reviewed and analyzed to establish the connection between tourism and the physical environments. The review shows an inevitable link between tourism activities with both environments. This and the strong tourism growth in the past, implies that tourism has far-reaching negative impacts that must be mitigated, not only for the good of the physical environments, but also for the sustainability of the industry itself. The review also indicates a slow integration of responsible environmental considerations into tourism planning and development due to lack of consensus about the importance of sustainable tourism as the industry’s new direction, lack of a single comprehensive meaning of sustainable tourism to ease operationalizing the concept, and the flawed acceptance of alternative tourism as the answer for all tourism ills. The paper ends by confirming the need for a new way of thinking that takes into consideration the fragmented nature of the industry and a collective and conscious effort of all tourism businesses, governmental policymakers and planners as well as the key stakeholders (the society, the NGOS, the CBOS and the tourists) to prioritize environmental issues in their daily undertakings. It also highlights the environmental impacts of a hotel operation and stresses the need for hotels, as one of the key tourism businesses to deal with its environmental obligations.