Answer :

IMPACT OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY ON THE ENVIRONMENT

Introduction

Hospitality industry is one of the most flourished and successful industries in the modern world that has globally generated billions of dollars in revenue and is favored by the customers as it caters to their needs and requirements. Hospitality industry, however, is one of those industries that have an adverse affect on the environment where it is situated or located in due to the activities of the industry that generally exert an impact on the environment (Bolte et al., 2008). The purpose of the following study is to critically analyze the three major impacts that are exerted by the hospitality industry on the environment and the three strategies that could be used to mitigate each of the impacts made. It can be stated that due to the modernization and high-end goals and objectives of the hospitality industry, various impacts are being exerted on the environment. However, these impacts can be easily and successfully mitigated through simple and effective measures.

Destruction of the Natural and Local Environment

The biggest impact of the hospitality industry on the environment is the destruction of the local and natural environment as well as decline in the native animals living in the environment. Hospitality industry is a wide and broad category of fields that includes hotels, theme parks, lodgings, cruise line, and many more (Cashman et al., 2012). As such, this creates a need of physical space where the hotels, theme parks, lodgings, cruise line, and others can be placed and located at. Usually these are located in places where the view of the natural environment can be clearly seen due to the fact people love places like that and hospitality industry being a customer centric industry caters to their needs. This location and establishment of the hotels, theme parks, lodgings, cruise line, and others in the environment destroys the natural environment which directly impacts the natural and local species of flora and fauna living in the environment (Seetanah & Fauzel, 2018). The destruction of the local and natural environment due to the location and establishment of the different aspects of the hospitality industry can be mitigated through proper planning. Proper Planning is one of the most effective and safe ways through which any industry or organization is able to establish themselves in a specific location in a sustainable manner which makes them virtually immune to any form of issues or problems. As such, the hospitality industry too can use proper planning in order to find a suitable location for the establishment of their segments such as lodgings, hotels, cruise line, theme parks, and others. Furthermore, they can plan to set up the components in their segmentations (Mahachi et al., 2015). This will allow them to not cause any destruction and decline of the local and natural environment and as such, this would not affect the flora and fauna of the local environment.

Generation of Waste

Another major impact of the hospitality industry on the environment is the generation of wastes. In the hospitality industry, there is a presence of various segments that includes food and beverages, travel and tourism, lodging, recreation, and many more. All of these are created to appeal and attract the customers and most people love all of these due to their social nature. As a result of this, this generates a lot of customers for fields such as hotels, theme parks, lodgings, cruise line, and others. However, due to this, a large quantity of waste is generated due to the disposals made by the people which includes food scraps, plastic, oil and chemical disposals (Farid et al., 2016). As a result of this generation of wastes, the local and natural environment where the hospitality industry is affected and the flora and fauna inhabiting the environment dying as a result. The generation of huge amount of harmful wastes by the hospitality industry can be easily mitigated and rectified through various methods. The most effective way is the establishment of strict rules, laws, and regulations which would be implemented in order to stop the customers from throwing and generating an unnecessary amount of wastes and failure of which would be dealt with penalty (Jayawardena et al., 2013). Another effective method is encouraging the customers to recycle their wastes as well as using more biodegradable products. Recycling the wastes and using more biodegradable products would allow the customers as well as the hospitality industry to not only reduce the waste generation, but also contribute to the recovery and growth of the natural and local environment. Another way is the use of an effective and safe disposable system where the wastes generated by the customers within the hospitality industry would be safely collected and processed and then sent off to be disposed remotely (Butts & Sukhdeo-Singh, 2010). This method would be highly effective and efficient in reducing the waste generation and harming the local and natural environment.

Excess Energy Consumption

Another major impact of the hospitality industry on the environment is the excessive consumption of energy. Hospitality industry is a wide segmentation of fields and categories that include food and beverages such as bars and pubs, travel and tourism such as theme parks, lodging such as hotels and resorts, and recreation such as tourist hotspots (Chan & Hsu, 2016). All of these appeal and attract the customers and people love all of these due to their social nature which results in the generation of the revenue and profits for the hospitality industry. However, in order to keep all of these running, a large amount of energy consumption is required. These include the use of water, electricity, and fossil fuels. This creates a decline in the availability of the resources for the people and moreover, it heavily affects the natural and local environment and to an extent, the flora and fauna inhabiting the environment due to the cause and effect relationship (Lin & Chen, 2018). This issue of excessive consumption of energy and its consequent impact on the environment can be effectively and safely mitigated through the use of alternate energy sources as well as reducing energy consumption. Using alternate energy sources such as the renewable energy sources can be used to generate electricity and energy for use in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the use of energy saving technology and consuming energy which is needed would be beneficial in reducing energy consumption by the hospitality industry (Barbier, 2002). This would effectively mitigate the declining availability of natural resources within the environment.

Conclusion

The above-written study critically analyzes and evaluates the three major impacts that are exerted by the hospitality industry on the environment and the respective strategies that could be used to mitigate the impacts made. It can be stated that due to the modernization and high-end goals and objectives of the hospitality industry, various impacts are being exerted on the environment. However, these impacts can be easily and successfully mitigated through simple and effective measures. The three major impacts of hospitality industry on the environment are destruction of the local and natural environment through accommodation, generation of unnecessary wastes, and excessive consumption of energy. However, all of these can be successfully mitigated through proper planning, establishment of strict rules, laws, and regulations, use of alternate energy sources as well as reducing energy consumption.