An exploratory study of environmental awareness in business tourism

Purpose – Business tourism is recognized as the largest holder of income for a particular destination but it is problematic in terms of sustainability. More and more countries are beginning to recognize the negative effects of business tourism on environment, turning to the organization of environmentally friendly business meetings, which are the main subject of this paper. Methodology – The research was conducted using a questionnaire with 23 questions which examined the attitudes of participants about the environmental sustainability of business meetings and the assessment of hotel performance, taking into account the environmentally sustainable performance during the business meeting. Since the one hotel that placed the congress has the "sustainable management" certificate, and the other one does not, the aim of this work is determining whether there is a difference in the business meeting participants’ environmental awareness in different hotels. Findings – Based on the results of the surveyed business meeting participants, it can be concluded that main hypothesis: Participants show awareness of the need for environmentally sustainable behavior, is confirmed since none of the respondents declared that they would initially choose a hotel without a "green" certificate if it is offered a possibility to go to a hotel with an environmentally certified business. Contribution – In the near future, "green" meetings will become recognized as the main feature of business tourism, and that all business meeting organizers will follow the rules of sustainability, achieving greater benefits with less harmful effects for the whole community.