**1. Introduction**

The debate on sustainability issue within tourism and hospitality sector has become viral nowadays. Within this debate, it is argued that modern hotel management should appreciate that the power of socio-environmental transformation is increasingly latent. Available evidence also further emphasizes that green products and services have gained tremendous attention, because customers are more concerned with environmental sustainability and worried about the deteriorating environment. However, a number of challenges have been highlighted that impede the implementation of the sustainability paradigm within the hotel industry [1]. Currently in every corner of the world, there is an increment of awareness about human being interfere toward environment in terms of deforestation, pollution, and wastes. This environmental interfere has led to destruction and excessive use of natural resources, especially water, forests, and natural landscape [1, 2]. These environmental destructions reveal that individuals' attitudes influence their behavior with regard to the environment. Currently, the environmental issue is not only a concern of manufacturing sector around the world but also the focus area of hotel industry, which can be affected by climate change impacts [3, 4]. The characteristics of tourism and hospitality industry in the world are similar, but the performance level and the managers' environmental attitude may differ from country to country [5].

Environmental management leads to reduce environmental damage that supports the concept of sustainability [6, 7]. Sustainability process can help a wide range of sectors including tourism and hospitality to minimize environmental damages, which is not only about minimizing uses of energy, water, and amount of waste produced, but also give attention to social responsibility and the economic benefits as cost-saving [8, 9]. Analyzing hotel managers' attitudes about environmental management is important because of their attitudes, and performance is directly related [10].

Inefficient use of energy, water, and waste from tourism and hotel activities generally has a significant impact on natural resources and environment [11, 12]. Thus, tourism and hospitality industry emit greenhouse gases (GHGs), which contribute to environmental pollution and climate change [13]. So, tourism and hospitality industry must have to manage early toward sustainability in order to reduce their negative impact on the environment. It also helps hotels to be economically cost-effective and provide healthy environment to hotel guests and community around.

The tourism and hospitality industry are highly dependent on natural environment that is very sensitive and needs attention. In Ethiopian case, even though the sector has not been well developed, currently there is progressive development in the area that gives hope in the future if the current attention from government side is continued strongly. Despite the positive signs of development in the sector, first there were still observed gaps with respect to sustainability of the resorts due to current and future environmental degradation. Second, hotel mangers environmental attitude, the level of performance, and problems that hinder adoption of green practice were not well identified and worked on in the region. If the owners and managers of resort resources are not given attention and aware of the significance of managing such resources in a sustainable manner, the problems could be contained.

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

So to overcome the currently observed environmental issues, research that identifies the critical gaps in the management of resort hotels and the challenges that are facing the wetlands surrounding them, and recommendation on how to handle the issues to the government and all stake holders are also crucial. However, there has not been research in Ethiopia concerning hospitality sector mangers with respect to environmental issues and current adoption level of practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to understand attitudes of resort hotel managers and the adoption level of environmental sustainability practices. Specifically the goals of the study are as follows: (1) to understand attitudes of managers in terms of perceived benefits, environmental knowledge, and subjective norms; (2) to identify social factors can influence manager's attitudes; and (3) to identify key issues influencing adoption of environmental sustainability. To achieve the purpose of the survey, this study examined top managers' environmental attitudes toward environmentally friendly practices, currently adopted green practices, and the most important factors influencing adoption of those actions.
