**4. Methodology**

#### **4.1 Research context and design**

The study was conducted in Bishoftu town. Since it is an old tourism destination in Ethiopia with so many resort hotels established around the lakes, this destination was selected purposively out of three resort destinations of Oromia region called Langano, Batu, and Bishoftu. The reasons to select are as follows: (1) The high intensity of utilization of the fragile ecosystems, which deserve to be assessed for the impact they may have on the sustainability of the natural resources that were serving as tourist attraction, and (2) it is intended to study the suitability of attitudes and practices toward environmental sustainability in the selected area because of the perception this resort destination had greater opportunity in terms of technology, awareness of hotel owners, and educated and skilled man power relative to other resort destinations. Systematic random sampling was used to select sample resorts [68] (field photo from sample resorts are shown in Appendix A: **Figures A.1** and **A.2**). The study is also focused on the seven categories of environmentally sustainable practices defined by Hsieh: environmental policy, education, incentives, green purchase, programs, environmental reports, and sustainability credentials [68]. And other studies state green practices performed in each area of service operation and categorized them into three main areas of environmentally friendly practices stated by energy management activities, waste management, and water conservation [33].

This study sought to examine the environmental sustainability practices adopted by sample hotels and manager's attitude that are informed by stakeholder's theory [69] the extent to which hotels accept physical environment including community. According to Creswell [70], both qualitative and quantitative methods were used that were followed in two steps: (1) analysis of pretest questionnaire survey and (2) interview with hotel owners and observations. The main data type used in this study was primary data, and published and unpublished secondary data such as tourist guide, annual reports, and strategic plans from regional- and town-level tourism office were also accessed.

#### *4.1.1 Questionnaire survey*

The questionnaire survey developed in two steps. First, the initial lists of variables about manager's environmental attitude were developed by an in-depth literature review [11, 35]. Second, hotel managers in Bishoftu were interviewed, the edition of the questionnaire was also further validated with the tourism experts and supervisors from school, and the questionnaire was finalized (questionnaires are shown in Appendix B: Questionnaire Survey).

#### *4.1.2 Interview and site observation*

Interview was done with the owners (managers) of six resorts. Lakes, garden, and hotel section observation was also carried out based on checklists to document the practices in place in order to triangulate the responses obtained through questionnaire survey and interview with general managers to check with realities on the ground. The observations and interviews were included like environmental pollution, waste management system, and conservation activities of the hotels. Questionnaires were delivered from July to August 2021. Human resource sections were asked for permission and support to submit survey packages to the respondents after orientations were given. Initially, 56 questionnaires were sent to six hotels. Each hotel had a week to complete the survey. Afterward, the author monitors survey questions together with human resource section. Finally, 44 completed questionnaires returned. This procedure resulted in 81.4% response rate.

#### *4.1.3 Sample determination*

There were 12 resort hotels in the study area. So, six resorts were taken from total population by considering the degree of variability, and response rate is not more than 20% and 80%. Sample size formula [68] is as follows.

$$m = \frac{\frac{p(1-\mathbb{P})}{\frac{A^2}{Z^2} + \frac{\mathbb{P}(1-p)}{N}}}{K} \tag{1}$$

where *n* = sample size, *N* = number of population, *P* = estimated variance which (0.5 for 50–50, 0.3 for 70–30, and 0.2 for 80–20), *A* = precision desired (i.e., 0.03, 0.05, and 0.1 for 3%, 5%, and 10%, respectively), *Z* = based on confidence level: 1.96 for 95% confidence, 1.64 for 90%, and 2.57 for 99%, and *K* = estimated response rate.

#### *4.1.4 Methods of respondent selection*

The general managers or department heads of resort hotels in Bishoftu were purposively selected as sample group of study in sample resorts. The main reason of selecting the hotel managers was that the influence role of hotel performance. Attitudes of resort managers influence actions, even though many hotels and hotel managers aware the negative impacts of their hotel on environment but low commitment to perform actions [10, 71].

#### **4.2 Data analysis**

Simple descriptive statistics (mean, percent, average, and frequencies) were used. SPSS Software version 20 was used to analyze data. And the results were presented in the form of tables. In order to describe the attitude of hotel managers toward environmental sustainability practices, the performance level of practices, and the most important factors affecting the adoption of practices, a frequency analysis was conducted. Simple regression analysis was used to explore whether hotel managers' attitudes were influenced by social and demographic characteristics. Qualitative data were analyzed using listening and transcription.

*Environmental Sustainability Practices in Hotels: From Attitudes to Implementation Case… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109433*
