The adoption of green practices by small and medium sized hotels in Southern Thailand

There have been some encouraging trends in recent years towards green and sustainable practices. Green practices from the foundation to certification schemes are increasingly important for companies involved in tourism and hospitality industries.There are a number of factors driving the demand for green. In hotel industry, however, it is claimed that small and medium-sized enterprises are not actively involved in green practices. The question is whether or not SME owner-managers of hotels are ready to keep abreast of the changes in the dynamic market environment. Using institutional theory as the underpinning theory, this study is to investigate factors that influence the adoption of green practices among small and medium sized hotels in Phuket and Krabi, Southern Thailand. The study adopts a quantitative approach.Data of quantitative analysis was collected through a survey of 145 owner-managers. Results show that internal push factors such as owner-manager attitudes and environmental awareness, and external pull factors such as supply chains positively influence the adoption of green practices. Interestingly, fund availability moderates the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. Policy, theoretical and practical implications are also discussed. Finally, this research provides suggestions for future work.