Green Fun in the Sun: A Case Study of the Environmental Behaviors of Stakeholders within Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort

Abstract

Global environmental changes have major impacts on a range of hospitality and tourism destinations where the primary features are natural resources such as mountains, beaches, water and wildlife that create the destination appeal. (Holden, 2005; Dolnicar & Leisch, 2008). As a component of the hospitality and tourism industry, multi-resort properties offer guests more than lodging, encompassing the leisure and travel experience for pleasure of the guests, as well as also offering meeting, convention and event planning destinations. This range of offerings also increases the environmental impact of the multi-resort complex. The participation of multiple stakeholder groups within the property, specifically managers, employees, and homeowners, creates a special need to understand the environmental behaviors within the multi-resort complex. In this study, Azjen’s (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior was adopted to understand the environmentally sensitive behaviors of the stakeholders within a multi-resort complex. The results indicate a reasonable fit between the data and the proposed model through both confirmatory factor analysis and the structural equation model. The findings indicate both an interest in behaviors that are more environmentally sensitive and a need for more opportunities to participate in these behaviors. It is concluded that a better understanding of the environmental behavior of stakeholders assists in creating positive environmental change for the multi-resort complex, as well as the environment.