SPA & WELLNESS OFFER AS A DETERMINANT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS OF MANAGERS IN THE TOURISM SECTOR
Keywords:
ecological awareness, SPA, Wellness, Climate changeAbstract
Starting from the assumption of a two-way relationship between climate change and tourism, as well as the importance of knowing the beliefs and attitudes of managers in entire tourist accommodation sector as key persons in tourism management as decision-makers and key actors in implementation of environmental protection and implementation of development and business policies in the area of sustainable development which is inseparable from climate change impacts, the main objective of the research was to determine whether certain characteristics of accommodation such as business orientation through wellness and SPA services, i.e. sports and fitness offer have any influence on the beliefs and attitudes of managers on climate change issues and the impact of climate change and tourist accommodation. For the purpose of determining the beliefs and attitudes on climate change and the interinfluence of climate change and tourist accommodation, a questionnaire originally designed for this research was used. Out of the total number of questionnaires submitted, 283 questionnaires had been duly completed, representing 26.1% of respondents, including 4.60% of the members of the Management Board or the Supervisory Body, 46.65% of the Directors or Heads of the Facility or members of the Operational Management, 19% quality managers and 33.56% of middle management staff. There are significant differences in the attitude of managers who manage tourist accommodation facilities that have ecological facilities and a SPA/wellness offer, or fitness offer, in relation to managers in tourist accommodation facilities where there is no SPA/wellness offer or fitness content offers in all the statements for which they expressed their attitude in all three components of the attitude, except in the emotional component associated with the sense of fear experienced by the respondents when contemplating climate change, irrespective of the observed characteristic of the accommodation. Consequently, the beliefs and attitudes of managers in the tourist industry are the function of various characteristics of the accommodation facility including SPA/wellness offer.
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