The Role of Countries’ Economic Development Level on Green Consumption Attitudes: A Study on Green Hotels
Murat Yetkin, Fatma Özlem GüzelWith the effect of technological developments and transformations on the demographic structure of consumers, a new issue has arisen, namely that of new consumers who are more aware of the environment. These consumers have begun to take into account the effects of certain products and services on the natural environment and society and they give priority to social responsibility in the world and society. A detailed investigation of the demographic characteristics of green consumers is important for a better understanding of green buying behavior. The aim of this research is to determine whether a given country’s economic development level is a factor that makes a difference to the awareness of the attitudes of green consumption. A survey was conducted on tourists staying in green star hotels in Alanya. The level of economic development of countries was used as the main point of separation. The findings showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the economic development level of countries and green consumption attitudes. Our study showed that participants from developed countries have a higher green consumption attitude. In addition, it revealed that female tourists have a greener consumption attitude than male tourists.
Yeşil Tüketim Tutumlarında Ülkelerin Ekonomik Gelişmişlik Düzeyinin Rolü: Yeşil Oteller Üzerinde Bir Uygulama
Murat Yetkin, Fatma Özlem GüzelTeknolojik gelişmelerin ve tüketicilerin demografik yapılarında meydana gelen değişikliklerin etkisi ile sorgulayan, araştıran ve eleştiren tüketiciler ortaya çıkmıştır. Bu tüketiciler, yaşadıkları evrenin ve toplumun sorumluluklarını ön planda tutarken, satın aldıkları ürün ve hizmetlerin doğal çevre ve toplum üzerindeki etkilerini dikkate almaya başlamışlardır. Yeşil tüketicilerin demografik özelliklerinin detaylı şekilde araştırılması yeşil satın alma davranışının anlaşılması açısından önemlidir. Bu bağlamda bu araştırmanın temel amacı turistlerin yeşil otel yeşil tüketim tutumlarında, vatandaşı oldukları ülkelerinin ekonomik gelişmişlik düzeyinin fark yaratan bir unsur olup olmadığını belirlemektir. Bu amaç doğrultusunda araştırmada Alanya destinasyonunda bulunan yeşil yıldızlı otellerde konaklayan turistler üzerinde anket yöntemi ile alan araştırması yapılmıştır. Araştırmada ülkelerin ekonomik gelişmişlik düzeyi temel ayrım noktası olarak ele alınmıştır. Hipotez testi için ki-kare ve bağımsız örneklemler t-testi kullanılmıştır. Bulgular, turistlerin ülkelerinin ekonomik gelişmişlik düzeyiyle yeşil tüketim tutumları arasında istatistiksel olarak anlamlı bir fark olduğunu göstermektedir. Gelişmiş ülkelerden gelen katılımcıların yeşil tüketim tutumlarının daha yüksek olduğu ortaya çıkmıştır. Ayrıca, tüm örneklem ele alındığında kadın turistlerin, erkek turistlere göre daha yeşil tüketim tutumuna sahip oldukları ortaya çıkmıştır.
With the effect of technological developments and changes and transformations in the demographic structures of consumers, new consumers are questioning, researching and criticizing the practices of enterprises. These consumers have begun to take into account the effects of the products and services that they purchase on the natural environment and society, while giving priority to their own responsibilities throughout the world and in the society in which they live. Green consumers have become the main point of research in the tourism sector and in academies in which a sustainable tourism approach has been adopted. A detailed investigation of the demographic characteristics of green consumers is important for a better understanding of green buying behavior. Within this context, the aim of this research is to determine whether a given country’s economic development level is a factor that makes a difference to the awareness of tourists’ green hotel experience at green hotels and the attitudes of green consumption. With this aim in mind, it was decided to group the sample based on tourists’ nationalities. Various options are available to group nationalities. These are many ways of grouping the nationalities based on geographical and economic indicators and so on. As the subject of the research is related to green consumer behavior, the economic development level of the countries was taken as the main point of sample separation. The classification of countries in the context of the development categories was done by indicators used in measuring “economic development level” such as GNP and GNP per capita, purchasing power parity and human development index (Özsoy, 2012). The idea is that citizens of countries with developed economies may be more sensitive to green consumption. In this research, the report entitled “The World Economic Outlook (WEO)” prepared by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2006 was used as a cluster tool. Based on the literature review, the hypotheses of the research are determined as follows:
H1. There is a significant relationship between the economic development level of the countries and tourists’ personal income.
H2. There is a significant relationship between the economic development level of the countries and the tourists’ pre green hotel experience.
H3. There is a significant difference between green consumption attitudes of tourists from economically developed and developing countries.
H4. The green consumption attitude of female tourists is statistically different from that of male tourists.
The questionnaire form used in the research consists of two parts. The first part includes questions about the demographic information of the participants regarding gender, age, marital status, education and income level and nationality. In the second part, there are questions about the reasons for participants’ green hotel selection and their previous green hotel accommodation experience. In the second part, the statements regarding the green consumption attitude reported in this study were structured on a 5-point Likert scale. The sample of the study consists of tourists staying in hotels with green certificates in Alanya and was selected by easy sampling method. A total of 415 questionnaire forms were gathered. Data were transferred to the computer and analyzed with SPSS 20 package program. The hypotheses were tested by chi-square and independent samples t-test. According to the findings, all the hypotheses were accepted. The findings showed that there is a statistically significant difference between the economic development level of the given countries and green consumption attitudes. The study revealed that participants from developed countries have higher green consumption attitudes. Therefore, the messages in the advertisements sent to tourists from developed countries should include in the content the social value that will positively affect their hotel selection. Small-scale donations serving the green philosophy purpose, carbon footprint erasure programs, and various opportunities introducing the local culture should also be included in the social messages. The messages that are sent to tourists coming from developing countries should use persuasion tactics which will directly address cognition and lead to positive behavior change. In addition, when the whole sample is taken into the consideration, women have a greater awareness of green consumption than men.
