ABSTRACT
Being green is more than just buying ‘eco’. It is an unshakable commitment to a sustainable lifestyle.
Jennifer Nini
Tourism marketing has normally been seen as an oppressed and fueling hedonistic consumerism. To bring this into the limelight, sustainability marketing intervened for a good purpose. Marketing skills, techniques, and latest technologies have been used to understand market needs, making consumers aware, designing more green products and services, and identifying more influential methods of communication to bring behavioral change. The focus of this chapter is to offer reflections on sustainable practices executed by the hotel industry and to examine the notion of “responsible consumption,” its relationship to the consumers’ perception, and impact on the consumers’ behavior toward green hotels.
This chapter outlines the diverse perspectives of responsible consumers who have shown a drastic change in their lifestyle. This also explains the factors that compelled hotels to shift toward sustainable practices. This chapter summarizes the latest facts, theories, practical implications, and results of sustainable marketing, responsible consumption, and consumer lifestyle that seek to make the hospitality sector an environment-friendly place to visit. The need for sustainable lifestyles among consumers is increasing and thereby compelling them to take personal actions to save the environment. This personal involvement of consumers would further bring about tremendous change in making our society look positive toward eco-friendly and green products and services.
This chapter presumes that the hospitality industry needs to examine the behavior of responsible consumers and also toward attracting those consumers who intentionally wish to pay for the sustainable practices. This chapter would be beneficial for academicians, marketers, and policymakers to develop and implement practical theories of understanding the consumer mindset and thereby aiming for economic growth as a whole. From the management perspective, the findings will assist the leaders and policymakers on the worldwide sustainability management issues which will have a favorable impact on the growth of several activities of sustainable tourism.
