لخّصلي

Abstract:
It is believed that tourism slowly and silently destroys environment, therefore implementing green technologies and responsible business behavior are among the most trending issues in contemporary tourism. Implementing Environmental Management System and quality standards ISO14000 and ISO14001 in hotels in Serbia are still at the early stage. The main goal of this study was to investigate the major obstacles for implementation of business based on ecological awareness and to assess to what extent the Green Marketing Strategies have influence on the image of the hotels, relations with the local community, competitiveness on the market, profitability and satisfaction of employees. The sample comprised 20% of the total number of hotels in Serbia which are known to use any form of ‘green’ marketing. The results confirm that the process of implementation of sustainable marketing strategies is at a very low scale (M=2.89). The regression analysis shows that the most beneficial are the satisfaction of employees and profitability. Furthermore, the results show that there are no differences in the implementation of such strategies regarding the hotels location, categorization and capacity, whereas certain benefits of green marketing vary in relation to location and the capacity of the hotel.
Keywords: hotels, green marketing, sustainability, Serbia

1. Introduction
   Since the early 1970s, when the first worrying signs about the environment began to appear, sustaining the nature has become an imperative. Various stakeholder groups have increasingly put pressure on companies to take drastic measures to protect and sustain the natural environment. Business has an essential role in preventing environmental damage, as it is responsible for much of the environmental degradation (Chan and Wong, 2006). Some leading companies are using environmental pressure to improve their operational efficiency, raise their corporate image, develop new products and opportunities, and thus gain a competitive edge (Taylor, 1992).
   If the positive impact of tourism can be noticed most easily in the
   economy, then surely the negative impact can be noticed in the environment. Thus, companies should take into account not only economic prosperity, but environmental quality and social justice (Badulescu et al., 2014). In the field of tourism, it is known that destinations that promote sustainable development have better performances in the market (Berry and Ladkin, 1997). Tourism, which has a complex relationship with the environment, is both a negative factor and a vector of profoundly ecological policies and strategies (Popescu et al., 2014).
   Hotel industry worldwide increases the efforts to sustain the environment. Necessity to implement the green issues in the service sector speaks in favor of tourism destroying the environment “silently”. The hospitality industry does
   not grossly pollute the environment, nor does it consume vast amounts of nonrenewable resources, but it does have a significant effect on global resources and a vested interest in protecting the environment, since it depends on attractive and safe surroundings as a part of the core product (Leonidou et al. 2013). Despite the fact that natural environment forms a part of the tourism product itself, in most countries environmental legislation in hotel sector is still relatively rare.
   Big international hotel companies implement eco standards in their businesses. By doing so, they influence the transformation of the relationship between tourism operators and the environment; raise awareness of its responsible consumption and the need to sustain the resources (Bradić, 2011). On a flipside, small private hotels and other types of accommodation that do not have buzz names or rich capital, have their own market sustainability high on the list of their priorities. Therefore, they should sustain the positive balance between investments and profit, which indicates that in practice it is not always the case of placing ecological awareness and business on top of priorities.
   Some hotel operators use the term ‘eco-hotel’ as a marketing tool, presuming this name has a positive impact on attracting guests and on influencing the
   final choice of potential clients (Pizam, 2009), while they neglect the basic eco principles in their business. “Real” eco hotels and eco lodges use eco-friendly technology and contribute to environmental protection as they recycle, reuse
   and save their resources. Hsiao et al. (2014) define a green hotel as one that is successfully, “providing tourists with a comfortable, natural, healthy and safe lodging service infrastructure on the basis of environmental protection,

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focusing on sustainable development and minimizing the negative impact on the environment”.
In the hotel industry of Serbia, the implementation of ecological principles EMS (Environmental Management System) and quality standards ISO14000
i ISO14001 is still at its early stage and the results are barely recognizable. The president of the Hotelier Association of Serbia claims that Serbian hospitality has been facing many problems in the past decades, putting an emphasis on the issue of the owner of the hotel and the management. The owners would manage their own hotels rather than delegate to the trained and professional management. The even worse scenario is that of the owners establishing a management that does not have the power of decision-making when it comes to investments or innovations. Unprofessionalism, inadequate marketing and ignorance of the contemporary trends lead to the fact that Serbian hotels are currently occupied by 30-35%, whereas the average occupancy rate is twice as this number (Krsmanović, 2013).
Therefore, the main goal of this study was to investigate the major obstacles for implementation of business based on ecological awareness and to assess to what extent the Green Marketing Strategies have influence on the image of the hotels, relations with the local community, competitiveness on the market, profitability and satisfaction of employees. In addition, the authors sought to find out whether implementation of sustainable marketing depends on the location, categorization and capacity of the hotels.
2. Literature review
Implementation of ‘green’ techonolgies into the hotel industry dates back to the late eighties, predominantly on the teritory of the North America. In the last decade of 20th century and at the beginning of 21st century, significant efforts were made to create green business policy in hotel marketing, which started to globalize very soon (Bradić, 2011). Green marketing is in many studies described as an company’s efforts at designing, promoting, pricing and distributing products that will not damage the environment (Pride and Ferrell, 1993, Salaiman et al., 2015). Implementation of green marketing is often caused by a company’s moral obligation, pressure from government bodies and competitors, the potential to improve revenues, the opportunity to save on costs and the opportunity to build
a positive image ((McIntosh, 1990; Bansal and Roth, 2000; Saha and Darnton, 2005; Delmas and Toffel, 2008; Kuo and Dick, 2010).
Hsiao et. Al. (2014) establish attributes of an Environmental Management System (EMS) for the hotel industry in Taiwan to create an instrument for green hotel evaluation. Environmental management system indicators were selected from ISO14000 and nine representative green hotel assessment systems. Dimensions
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are: environmental policy, water resource, energy, solid wastes, indoor environment (health and safety), green purchasing, corporate management, staff education, public and community relationship and consumer education.
Chan (2013) attempts to address important green marketing ploys from
the perspective of hotel managers. Ranked in order from most important to
least, these ploys are as follows: (1) “Hotel green marketing should begin with green product and service design”, “Hotels provide products and services that do no harm to human health” and “The Internet is an effective channel to market
a hotel’s green initiatives to customers directly”; (2) “Green hotels can elevate industry members’ positive image and reputation to attract green-conscious tourists who will normally demand green accommodation when travelling” and (3) “Hotels here are sincerely instituting programmes that save water and energy, reduce solid waste, use resources economically and protect the planet’s ecosystems” (Chan, 2013).
El Dief and Font (2010) explored the relationship among personal environment values (PEV), organisational envireonment values (OEV) of hotel marketing managers, together with a range of organisational and demographic variables and implementation of hotels green marketing strategies. According to the results, organisational context and demographic variables are more important in explaining GMSs than personal and organisational values. The results support the influence of organisational values on marketing managers’ environmental behaviour, but not the influence of personal values.
Nicholls and Kang (2012) indicated that the existence of a written environmental policy is associated with higher levels of adoption of green practices, and managers from smaller independent properties are more likely engaged in community-oriented activities and the use of local and/or organic products. In terms of the perceived benefits of the adoption of green practices, they measure
if it: improves the image of their property, improves relationships with the local community, gives them a marketing advantage over their competitors, increases profitability and increases employee satisfaction. With respect to size, respondents from large properties were more likely than those from medium or small properties to perceive benefits in terms of image, marketing advantage and relationships with the local community, and those from large properties were more likely than those from small properties to perceive benefits in terms of employee satisfaction.
Kyung et al. (2012) examine hotel guests’ willingness to pay a premium for environmentally friendly and sustainable practices of the U.S. hotel industry. Their study found that U.S. hotel guests with higher degrees of environmental concerns declare a higher willingness to pay premiums for hotels’ green initiatives. They also found that luxury and mid-priced hotel guests are more willing to pay premiums for hotels’ green practices than economy hotel guests. Han et al (2011) found that

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eco-friendly attitudes favorably affect hotel guests’ intentions to visit a green hotel, to spread positive word-of-mouth, and to pay more. Their findings implied that women tend to rate eco-friendly intentions more favorably. However, more efforts must be made to communicate green hotel practices to the public to assist the selection of green hotels and more active participation for green consumption.
According to the previous studies that have been conducted in developing coutries, on short-term basis it is most efficient for the government to pose a
strict set of rules (Bradić, 2011). The results of IP analysis in the work of Blešić
et al. (2014a) showed that the main problem when offering a quality service in
spa hotels in Serbia is the inadequate organisation and appointments of hotels.
As Bradić’s study (2011) shows, socially responsible business policy is still at the early stage in Serbia and there is plenty of space for improvements and progress. Generally, all the hoteliers have a positive attitude towards this concept, but its implementation is highly dependent on the legal regulations in the country and on the criteria on which the hotels are currently categorized. The major letdown is the fact that it is not worthwhile for the hoteliers to invest in the socially responsible business practices. Also, Blešić et al. (2014b) indicated that consumers in Serbia are not familiar with consumer social responsibility. People in Serbia are still not well informed about CSR and have low level of social responsibility consciousness.
After the in-depth literature review, the authors of this study hypothesized that the implementation of GMS in Serbia is still at the early stage, but where there is evidence of it, the benefits are multiple (improved image, relations with local communities, competitiveness, profitability and employee satisfaction). Furthermore, it was assumed that the benefits of GMS would vary in relation to characteristics of the hotel (location, categorization and capacity).
3. Methodology
The survey took place in Serbia and was conducted in January and February in 2015. In the year 2013, Serbia was ranked on the 102th place in terms of the total contribution of travel and tourism to its national GDP (WTTC, 2014). At the end of 2014 there were 226 hotels in Serbia. This study took into account 45 hotels, which make 20% of the total number (Table no.1). Surveying was conducted in two different ways: 1) via an online questionnaire sent to marketing managers
of the hotels and 2) in situ. Open ended questions sought to get the answers regarding the green marketing and the obstacles they experienced attempting to implement it. The most frequent answers were those regarding the lack of financies and legal regulations, underdeveloped ecological awareness among the employees and outdated technologies. A total of 100 questionnaires were distributed, but only

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those hotels that have some form of green marketing in their business were taken into account. Eventually, 45 hotels comprised a representative sample.
The survey consisted of three parts. In the first part the general demographic data of hotel managers was collected (gender, age and education), as well as the characteristics of the hotels (location, capacity and categorization). The second part consisted of the scale for measuring implementation of green marketing, patented by Dief and Font (2010). The scale had 9 items that were grouped in one factor after conducting the factor analysis. Respondents were asked to assess the extent to which environmental issues have impacted their hotels’ marketing strategy, using a five-point Likert-type scale (Table no. 2).