Factors Affecting Technological Competitiveness in the Green Practices in the Hotel Industry of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Tourism is recognized as one of the world's largest industries and continues to expand at a rapid rate. However, negative environmental impacts and social impacts are results of this rapid growth. The Sri Lankan hotel industry is operated in a lagging characteristic in greening compared with the global tourism even if some of the best green hotels are operating locally. Hence, a clear gap in greening is visible between the local hotel industry and the best local green hotels. Therefore, this research focused on observing the relevant technological factors behind the existence of such a gap in green implementation of the 58 hotels which are located within the Western Province of Sri Lanka. Further it was conducted as a hybrid approached based on the details collected from the literature review, interviews and a questionnaire based survey. The questionnaire sample included 120 respondents. Data analysing was done using the SPSS through the descriptive and inferential statistics techniques. Findings showed that green expertise knowledge and the technological capabilities are critical factors on green. However, technology transfer and technological infrastructure are not critical factors as of now. Therefore, key issues were analysed and the recommendations were made to meet the sustainable development in the hotel industry of Sri Lanka.