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Vietnam's hospitality sector ranked 96th out of 99 countries in sustainable tourism despite hotels wanting to improve.
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The Problem
How We Uncovered What's Really Stopping Hotels from Going Green
Vietnam ranked 96th out of 99 countries in sustainable tourism, despite the hospitality sector's expressed commitment to environmental responsibility. Hotel executives across Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City told us they wanted to implement sustainable practices—but somehow weren't making progress.
The disconnect was puzzling. Hotels had sustainability goals. Guests increasingly valued environmental responsibility. Government policies encouraged green practices. Yet Vietnam's hospitality sector remained stuck near the bottom of global sustainability rankings.
We suspected the problem wasn't lack of interest—it was misconceptions preventing effective action.
The Challenge When we began this research, Vietnam's hospitality sector faced a paradox. Individual hotels expressed strong interest in sustainability. Industry associations promoted green practices. Tourism authorities recognized environmental responsibility as competitive necessity. But the results didn't match the intentions. Despite continuous tourism growth and expressed commitment to sustainability, the industry remained globally uncompetitive on environmental performance.
We needed to understand what was happening between good intentions and actual implementation.
The Solution
Why We Were Positioned to Lead This Research Through Glassia Water, we had been working directly with Vietnam's hospitality sector since 2021. We understood the operational realities hotels face: cost pressures, guest expectations, staff training challenges, supplier limitations. We had relationships with hotel executives across different market segments and geographic regions.
Uncovering the Real Barriers Research Methodology: We interviewed 18 hotel executives across 3, 4, and 5-star establishments in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. Participants included General Managers, F&B Managers, and Marketing Managers—people responsible for sustainability decisions and implementation.
Interview Focus: Rather than asking about sustainability goals or commitments, we focused on specific decisions: why they chose certain products, what prevented them from implementing particular practices, how they evaluated environmental claims, what factors influenced purchasing decisions.
Pattern Analysis: We analyzed responses to identify recurring themes, misconceptions, and decision-making frameworks that consistently led to suboptimal sustainability outcomes.
The Impact
What We Discovered The research revealed five widespread misconceptions that were systematically preventing effective sustainability implementation:
Misconception 1 - "Only Upscale Hotels Can Afford Sustainability": Hotels across all categories believed environmental solutions required premium budgets. This prevented 3 and 4-star establishments from exploring reduce-reuse approaches that could actually save money.
Misconception 2 - "All Plastics Are Bad": Blanket anti-plastic policies led hotels to replace single-use plastic with single-use alternatives that had worse environmental impacts. They focused on material type rather than use patterns.
Misconception 3 - "Environmental Harm Only Occurs at Disposal": Hotels optimized waste management without considering product lifecycle impacts. This led to choices that reduced visible waste while increasing hidden environmental impacts.
Misconception 4 - "Recyclable Means Recycled": Hotels assumed recyclable packaging would actually be recycled, without understanding local waste management capacity or investigating what happened to materials after collection.
Misconception 5 - "Guests Don't Care About Sustainability Communication": Hotels avoided discussing environmental initiatives, missing opportunities for guest engagement, staff motivation, and industry leadership that could accelerate adoption.
Beyond Individual Misconceptions What makes this research particularly significant is how it revealed systematic barriers preventing industry transformation. The research enabled development of practical strategies tailored to different hotel categories: 3-star establishments focusing on reduce-reuse approaches, 4-star hotels implementing lifecycle-conscious purchasing, 5-star properties integrating sustainability into brand identity.
What This Represents This research demonstrates that sustainability barriers often involve information and misconceptions rather than fundamental resource or capability constraints. Vietnamese hotels were ready for environmental leadership—they just needed accurate information and practical strategies.
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