Application of sustainable development principles in hotel business

Abstract

Tourism development, if not sustainable, could threat and affect the environment as an object of tourists' interest. Accordingly, hotels as a type of tourism organizations within a destination, are trying to involve sustainable business activities in their operations in order to protect the environment. In hotels within developed countries, sustainable activities are already implemented in the business and they are in the balance with the environment. However, implementation of these activities within societies in transition, such as Serbia, is still in initial level, which is confirmed in this research. The subject of this paper is, therefore, oriented toward the business activities of hotels located within Kopaonik, popular destination of winter tourism and National Park of Serbia, and these activities are researched through the employees' perspective of ecological, socio-cultural and economic principles of the hotel business. Methods used in the paper are: descriptive, comparative, statistical and the critical one. Also, a survey research was conducted for the purpose of the paper and it obtained a sample of 211 hotel employees. The research results explained the current state within the hotel business of Kopaonik related to activities focused on ecological, socio-cultural and economic principles of sustainable development. Also, results indicate the level of employees' job satisfaction and the level of their job commitment in accordance with hotels' involvement in sustainable practices. All researched constructs of the paper are interpreted as important aspects of Kopaonik's sustainability on the tourist market.