The greener, the more cost efficient? An empirical study of international tourist hotels in Taiwan

Abstract

Going ‘green’ is more than a mere fad in the hotel industry, and environment-friendly green hotels are becoming popular. The purpose of this study was to conduct an investigation into the link between ‘green’ and cost efficiency in the hotel industry. Empirical evidence supporting this investigation was gathered from the Taiwan hotel industry. Data were gathered from 68 international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Moreover, our finding differs from most of the earlier studies and indicates that ‘green’ is negatively and significantly associated with the cost efficiency of a hotel. In other words, ‘green’ renders a hotel ineffective. The implications of the findings have been discussed, and the limitations of the study as well as future research directions have been addressed.

Keywords:

• green
• cost efficiency
• inefficiency
• data envelopment analysis
• international tourist hotel