Abstract
Coastal food services are an important segment within ‘sea and sun’ tourism. They have a direct impact on the environment from liquid and solid waste generation, air contamination, and excessive energy and water consumption. Mass tourism and the contemporary threat of climate change enhance the anthropogenic intrusion, especially in vulnerable coastal zones. To prevent overexploitation of the coastal zones, the adaptation of the sustainable principles by coastal stakeholders is an urgent matter. Thus, this study aims to design a model of sustainable development for restaurants and to examine the level of its adoption by seaside restaurant owners in two touristic beach areas of Cadiz province, Spain. A questionnaire was performed during the high summer season in 2018. The obtained data was analysed by IBM SPSS software. The survey results showed that the model of sustainable development has been poorly adopted by restaurant managers. Foreign managers of international restaurants are less involved in the adoption of the sustainable model in comparison to Spanish restaurant owners. Moreover, restaurants that have been opened more than 10–20 years provide a more sustainable way of business operation in comparison with newly established food service organizations.
Highlights
The restaurant sector plays an essential economic role in the tourism industry of Spain [1]
The calculations of the chi-square test have proved that the first article hypothesis is truthful because the foreign restaurant owners adopt the sustainable model and green practices significantly less in comparison to the local owners
The period of the samples collection allowed us to notice that the foreign owners of restaurants refused to participate in the survey more frequently, than local ones
Summary
The restaurant sector plays an essential economic role in the tourism industry of Spain [1]. The food service sectors contribution to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) reached 93.000 million euros in 2016. This figure represents 5% of GDP and more than 1.2 million employees [2]. The restaurant sector generates a direct adverse impact on local ecosystems, soil, water, and atmosphere via producing gas emissions, solid, and liquid waste, as well as intensive consumption of energy and water resources [3,4]. Wang et al [5] stated that the restaurant industry is perceived as one of the least environmentally friendly economic sectors in comparison to its economic benefits and contribution to greenhouse emissions. Restaurants are considered one of the biggest generators of daily rubbish worldwide [6]
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