‘Time for Malaysia to adopt more eco-hospitality practices’

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TOWARDS ECO-HOSPITALITY: Mukvinder delivering her paper during the symposium.

TOWARDS ECO-HOSPITALITY: Mukvinder delivering her paper during the symposium.

KUCHING: The country’s environmental friendly practices in the hospitality industry (eco-hospitality) are relatively low and need immediate transformation, considering Malaysia’s continuous impressive growth in the tourism sector.

The country was placed top nine in the global tourism destinations as of 2011 and a total of 25 million tourists visited the country last year.

Following Malaysia’s tourism transformation plan to target about 36 million tourist arrival by 2020, carbon emission, energy and water wastage will be a main cause for concern if the eco-hospitality practices were yet to be seriously adopted by the industry here.

“Based on our studies, human factor is the most important to enhance transformation to the industrial practice. With regards to the implementation of eco-friendly initiatives, we are still struggling when it comes to people’s awareness.

“Consumers may be aware at certain level but in the management side, we want to look into government incentives, policies and maybe a tax break to a certain extent, after these organisations adopt various environmental friendly practices.

“Malaysia is still a little far behind,” UCSI University head of Pre-U Centre Mukvinder Kaur Sandhu told reporters after delivering her paper ‘Evaluating the Perception and Readiness of the Hotel Industry in Malaysia’ at the university’s symposium of Tourism Studies here yesterday.

Among those present were UCSI University Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management dean Assoc Prof Dr Li Jianyao and head of Tourism Management Department Lah Wan Yee who is also the event’s organising chairperson.

The two-day symposium at the campus auditorium is held in collaboration with a branch of the Russian Economic University after GV Plekhanov in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Touching on her recent study conducted on 232 local and foreign guests at hotels nationwide on how they perceived the eco-friendly hotel environmental practices among the staff and management, Mukvinder revealed many correspondents have called for improvements in hotel policies and personnel ethics.

She pointed out that once the people are aware of good eco-hospitality practices, the management level would be confident to take these practises into their hotels. A better environmental friendly approach adopted at the operational level will affect consumers’ perception.

“In the long run, this is all about saving cost. As far as recognition is concerned, hotels will get a competitive edge,” she continued.

Another key aspect is the location. Mukvinder suggested that hotels needed to be strategically placed with easy access to all tourism spots to minimise carbon emission. Efficient public transportation was also very much needed in addition to good water management system, adopting ‘energy saver’ system, recycling programmes and training course for staff to implement a green hotel concept.

Li meanwhile, highlighted that hotels in China have adopted new technologies to generate power such as the implementation of solar panels to harness sustainable natural energy. An eco-city in China revealed efficient walkways and cycling lanes, providing short distances to all important spots.

“We can foresee these kinds of technologies implemented in Malaysia to adopt an eco-friendly mindset. The practice will contribute to less pollution and increase environmental protection.

“The hospitality industry should be heavily involved in this enterprise as part of its corporate social responsibility in preventing more wastage,” he continued while suggesting that this initiative would provide better awareness for all sectors to adopt an environmental friendly concept.