CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 1: RESEARCH OVERVIEW
1.0 Introduction
Descriptions related to green hotels and its practices are presented. This chapter also includes scope of study and issues that need to concern in this research will be formulated. Furthermore, desired goals to be achieved and research questions are developed and presented.

Research Background
Over the last few decades, the public concerns toward to the environmental problems/ disasters have progressively escalated (Heesup Han & Yunhi Kim 2010). Lately, Malaysia has been facing a number of environmental issues which is deforestation, climate change and global warming. Malaysia’s temperatures are predicted to increase by 0.6 C to 4.5 C by the year 2060 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) (Zam zuriyati 2014). According to (Julia 2015), 5% of the global carbon emissions and 14% of total greenhouse emissions are caused by tourism around the world. Thus, tourism is considered have a major impact on the environment. In many countries, tourism is one of the major sources of income and employment. Tourism depends intensely on environmental resources which include clean air, warm atmosphere, and landscape formation among others (Nor Azila 2014) To deliver comprehensive accommodation services/supplies to the tourists, services such as lighting, laundry, heating, cooling, swimming pools and ventilation, has lead hotel industry into a high consumption of water, energy, non-durable goods and produces substantial waste and emission of carbon dioxide which these activities are constitute as threat to the environment (Chih-Ching Teng 2017) According to (Zam Zuriyati 2014), hotel industry has been consider as the most environmentally harmful sector that has disproportionate consumption of energy, water, and non- durable goods which possessed 75% of its environmental impact. In recent years, numerous customers have been aware of the harming of environmental resources and environmental damages caused by the hotel industry. (Heesup Han ; Lee Tzang 2009). A great alteration in consumer buying behaviors and attitudes towards eco-friendly business establishment has occurs due to these environmental concerns and awareness (Heesup Han ; Yunhi Kim 2010). Many customers had realized that their buying behavior might bring harm to the environment and has begun to change their purchasing habits by inquiring and purchasing for eco-friendly products (Mei-Fang Chen 2013). Subsequently, hotels are ending up more concerned towards keeping the balance between ecological issues, resources consumption issues, moral and societal concern and productivity. An attention on environmental issues particularly in the tourism sector has prompted the expanding number of green hotel (Zam Zuriyati 2014). The Green Hotels Association (2014) characterized that Green hotel is a pro-environmental lodging properties whose managers are keen to execute diverse green practices/programs that are water saving, energy saving and reduce the use of solid waste while saving cost to help secure our planet.( Dr. Imran Rahman 2016). In recent years, numerous hotels around the world are putting intensive efforts in searching for compelling approaches to become “green” so as to position themselves distinctively within the competitive hotel industry and Malaysia is not an exception to this (Tilikidou Eirini 2014). In the recent past, (Punitha 2011) indicates that Malaysia is one of all the earliest countries within the world that have taken serious consideration relating to the environment by enacting the Environment Quality Act 1974. Likewise in other countries, many hotels in Malaysia had incorporated the green concept in their business operations. There were several most known green hotels in Malaysia which are Sukau Rainforest Lodge in Sabah, Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Shangri-La’s Tanjung Aru Resort and Spa in Sabah, and Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa in Penang, Malaysia. These hotels have been awarded the eco-certification standards and environment management standards like ISO 4001.

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Problem Statement
As environmental safety is now a global concern, a way to limit the environmental impact while additionally presenting high-quality customer service is a crucial difficulty for hotel industry (Han and Yoon, 2015). Butler (2008) factors out that most customers tend to hold bad impression towards green hotel practices because these practices want additional costs to enforce, which affects room prices to be higher and inconvenient for customers.

Rresearch shows that tourists is probably inclined to stay in green hotel but do no longer want their encounters to be compromised by the green practices. (e.g. bath tubs with low water volume; reuse towels and linens) (Berezan et al., 2014). Despite that, although there are numerous ideas and projects to support the green hotel, the reserve revenues for green hotels neither elevated nor reduced (Chong ; Verma, 2013). Even though the number of green hotels continues to increase, studies at the guest’s stay intention is still inadequate. Most of preceding researches in green hotel field had been focused on the consumer’s perception on green hotel (Cometa, 2012); management motivation to adopt the green hotel practices (Kamalul Ariffin, Khalid, ; Wahid, 2013); and customer satisfaction on green hotel (Robinot ; Giannelloni, 2010); impact of personality traits and marketing strategy (Mohamad et al., 2014).
This study at is vital in view that there is a conflict of benefits among hotels, society and customers in Malaysia. Moreover, from hotel perspective understanding what affects their customer’s stay intention can help them design their business version to be both aggressive and green. There are quite a number of pro-environmental studies have extended TPB with cognitive elements such as environmental awareness and perceived moral obligation (Chan et al., 2014; Kaiser, 2006). The aim is to investigate if the additional variables together with TPB can better explain customers’ intentions to stay green hotels in Malaysia.

1.3 Research Objectives
The objective is set as a direction to achieve the goals of this study (Business, 2018). It is considered as comprising into two parts:
1.3.1General Objective
Primary intention of this paper is aim to discover the drivers that influence customer intention to stay at green hotels in Malaysia.

1.3.2Specific Objectives
Four exact intentions for this paper are discusses below:
To examine is there a positive influence of subjective norm towards consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia.

To examine is there a positive influence of perceived behavioural control towards consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia.

To examine is there a positive influence of perceived moral obligation towards consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia.

To examine is there a positive influence of environmental awareness towards consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia.

1.4 Research Questions
Numbers of questions are stated to determine the influence of Independent Variables (IV) towards Dependent Variable (DV).
Does subjective norm influence consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia?Does perceived behavioural control influence consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia?
Does environmental awareness influence consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia?
Does perceived moral obligation influence consumer’s stay intention in green hotels in Malaysia?
1.5 Hypotheses of the Study
Hypothesis is a statement of prediction. It explains in detail terms what will happen in this study and this study has four hypotheses. The purpose of the study is to explore some area in more in depth in order to develop some prediction that can be tested and helpful in future research. It is a way for researcher to pre-determine the result of the variable that going to be tested.

H1: There is a positive influence of subjective norms towards intention to select a green hotel.

H2: There is a positive influence of perceive behavioral control towards intention to select a green hotel.

H3: There is a positive influence of perceive moral obligation towards intention to select a green hotel.

H4: There is a positive influence of environmental awareness towards intention to select a green hotel.

1.6 Significance of study
This research is contributed primarily to identify consumer intention to stay in green hotel. The goal of this research is to examine the relationship between Malaysia hotel guest environmental concern, and their willingness to pay a premium for hotels with green practices. Due to the facts that the competition of hotel is getting stiff and more hotels are developed in Malaysia and more wastage are happen therefore hotel are applying green practices, for instance G Tower Hotel in Kuala Lumpur is one of the green hotel CITATION Nan07 l 17417 (Scanlon, 2007). Although green practices are not part of the core functional of hotel services, but depending on their presentation, green practices can be an extra service that provide intangible benefits to customers CITATION Kyu11 l 1033 (Kyung Ho Kanga, 2011). This satisfaction may influence guests’ willingness to pay a premium and stay at green practices hotel CITATION GJD08 l 17417 (G.J.Dalton, 2008). Hotels are equipped with spas, pools, or fitness centre can bring tangible comfort to hotel guests, green practices may satisfy guests’ self-esteem need or psychological emotional need. The purpose of this study is to describe socio-demographically, psychographic and behaviourally, guests that have indicated that they are willing to pay a premium and willing to stay in a green practice hotel and environmental friendly hotel CITATION GJD08 l 17417 (G.J.Dalton, 2008). These researches will reviews the literature and delineate methodology which includes survey and data collection.

1.7 Chapter layout
This thesis consists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 is basically the first part of the report that allows the readers to get a general idea of what the FYP report is about. Research problems/ issues are introduced, and the importance and validity of research are indicated in this chapter. Chapter 1 are mainly discusses about the research background, problem statement, research objectives, research question, and research significance and hypotheses of research of the hotel industry. Then, Chapter 2 includes the reviews of the literature related to the topic of the research. The selected literature must be analyze and synthesize logically. Basis of the development framework for the research are usually formed by the analysis of literature. Besides, relevant theory of the study will also be discussed by referring to the past studies. Moreover, the theoretical or conceptual framework must be comprised in this chapter. Hypotheses will be developed. In chapter 3, the types of techniques and methods used are determined. For instance, they are sampling size, populations, variables and measurements, data collection types and methods, and data analysis techniques. All these methods and techniques used must be explained and justified. There were two main elements discussed in chapter 4which are the analysis results attained and the interpretation of the results. These results are obtained from surveys/ pilot tests. Before showing the tables/ diagrams the interpretation of result in text must be presented. Lastly, Chapter 5 will features the finding of the study upon which a conclusion meets the objectives set. Furthermore, the overall of the study will be concluded in this chapter.

1.8 Conclusion
This part is introductory to talk about variable and the influence of consumer intention to stay in green hotels in this study is leading the formation of the objectives, questions, and hypotheses. There will have total four independent variables that determined the consumer intention to stay at green hotel.

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