Sustainability in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry in the Age of Digitization
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 1532
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable tourism; ecotourism; stakeholder collaboration
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The tourism and hospitality sector plays a profound role in generating employment, stimulating economic growth, and fostering intercultural exchange. However, the sector also exerts considerable environmental, social, and economic pressures, making sustainability a critical and longstanding frontier for researchers and practitioners alike.
In the current post-pandemic era, the sector is navigating a “Twin Transition”: the simultaneous push for environmental sustainability and rapid digital acceleration. This synergy is no longer optional but a fundamental requirement for resilient hospitality ecosystems. Moreover, advancing this field requires robust quantitative evidence and innovative modeling to understand how digital footprints can be leveraged for sustainable destination management.
Since its introduction into academic discourse in the late 1980s, the concept of sustainability has evolved into a multidimensional concept encompassing environmental, economic, and sociocultural pillars. In the context of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the tourism and hospitality sector is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including decent work and economic growth, responsible consumption and production, climate action, and sustainable cities and communities.
At the same time, the tourism and hospitality sector is undergoing rapid transformation driven by digitalization, technological advancement, and changing consumer preferences. These developments create both opportunities and challenges for integrating sustainability principles into tourism and hospitality planning, development, and management. Beyond traditional sustainability, we aim to explore regenerative hospitality frameworks—moving from “doing less harm” to “creating net-positive impacts” for local communities, ecosystems, and destinations through smart technological integration.
Furthermore, as the tourism and hospitality sector becomes increasingly data-driven, there is a clarion call for rigorous methodological approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability initiatives. We encourage submissions that employ innovative quantitative methods, big data analytics, and experimental designs to bridge the gap between the application of theoretical sustainability models and real-world hospitality performance. By focusing on measurable outcomes, this Special Issue aims to provide stakeholders with actionable insights to optimize destination management in an era of bigdata and digital transparency.
In line with the scope of Sustainability, this Special Issue seeks to advance interdisciplinary and policy-relevant research that contributes to theoretical advancement, empirical evidence, and practical solutions to the challenges currently facing the sector. In doing so, the Special Issue also provides an outlet for high-quality theoretical, empirical, and applied research addressing sustainability issues in the contemporary tourism and hospitality sector.
Original research articles, review papers, and conceptual studies are invited. Topics include, but are not limited to:
- Stakeholder collaboration and governance for sustainable tourism and hospitality development.
- Digitalization, smart tourism, and technological innovation for sustainability.
- Community participation and inclusive tourism for sustainable development.
- Tourism benefit-sharing mechanisms and participative tourism development.
- Artificial intelligence and data-driven approaches in sustainable destination planning.
- Climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience in tourism and hospitality.
- Sustainable hospitality management and green operational practices.
- Circular economy and resource efficiency in tourism and hospitality.
- Nature-based tourism, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem protection.
- Decent work and human capital development in tourism and hospitality.
- Gender equality and social inclusion in tourism and hospitality.
- Impact management in tourism.
- Tourism policy, regulation, and institutional frameworks for sustainability.
- Tourist behavior and sustainable consumption patterns.
- Controlled growth and visitor management.
- Regenerative Hospitality: Strategies for moving beyond net-zero to create positive environmental and social handprints.
- Food Waste Analytics: Leveraging IoT and big data for resource efficiency in professional kitchens and hospitality operations.
- Digital Nudging: Using technology to influence pro-environmental tourist behavior and sustainable consumption.
Dr. Amare Nega Wondirad
Dr. Fahimeh Hateftabar
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- tourism impact management
- sustainable tourism development
- sustainability and emerging technologies
- inclusive and responsible tourism
- regenerative tourism
- twin transition
- AI ethics in hospitality
- big data analytics
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