Environmental Compliance Assessment of Star-Rated Hotels in Nepal Based on Environmental Management Plans (EMPs)

Abstract

The tourism industry has rised significantly in the nation over the past few years with a considerable surge in especially star rated hotels. With the increased facility to the tourists, this causes an increase in the associated environmental problems also to a greater extent. The major problems associated are solid waste and waste water management, high energy and water consumption, water resources management as well as disaster preparedness. However, the effective implementation of Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) of Environmental study reports can help mitigate such  effects. This requires for the needof environmental compliance assessment to verify the existing scenario against the proposed activities. Even though, there are several studies in Nepal which has incorporated the tourism industry; very few are related to compliance status especially on environmental parameters. So, this study aims to assess the compliance status of star rated hotels located in the different provinces of Nepal based on descriptive as well as comparative research design. Several key parameters that range from air and water pollution to solid waste management, water resources management to disaster preparedness along with greenery maintenance and support to locality are considered for this study. The results from the study showed that waste water management was found to be significantly non-compliant across all the parameters examined. However, various other parameters including solid waste management, air and sound quality management along with energy and disaster management were majorly compliant as per their EMPs; while the rest parameters showed mixed compliance status. Hence, the assessment spots a significant gap in certain parameters when it comes to the implementation status. Therefore, it is suggested to implement the mitigation measures more stringently and also sideways encourage the
hotels to adopt more environment friendly and sustainable activities.