Search Results (422)

This study provides a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the carbon footprint of a four-star hotel in Istanbul, Türkiye, spanning the period from 2022 to 2024, to identify critical operational emission drivers. Methodologically grounded in ISO 14064-1 and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the research integrates direct (Scope 1), indirect energy (Scope 2), and selected value-chain (Scope 3) emissions. The operational data underwent rigorous uncertainty and sensitivity analyses, alongside multi-tier benchmarking against global, climatic, and regional datasets. Findings reveal that total emissions increased from 1444.93 tCO₂e in 2022 to 1592.61 tCO₂e in 2024, predominantly driven by grid-connected electricity, which accounted for approximately 47.1% of the total footprint in 2024. Key operational hotspots include the continuous baseload energy demands of mechanical rooms and lifts, fugitive R-404A refrigerant leakage, and Scope 3 impacts from red meat procurement and organic waste. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses confirmed the footprint’s high elasticity to the national grid’s carbon intensity. Despite the facility outperforming benchmarked peers in overall eco-efficiency, the study concludes with actionable, stratified recommendations for facility engineers, hotel operators, and tourism policymakers to overcome technical, supply-chain, and grid-level barriers to decarbonization. Full article

Understanding the financial characteristics associated with hotel performance is important for competitiveness and managerial decision-making. However, empirical evidence based on objective company-level financial indicators remains limited, particularly in the Croatian hotel sector. This study examines the relationships between labour productivity, firm size, and profitability, as well as financial performance heterogeneity among Croatian hotel companies. Using accounting data for 47 large hotel companies in 2024, the study employs descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation analysis, robust multiple regression, sensitivity analysis, and K-means cluster analysis. The results reveal considerable heterogeneity in financial performance. Labour productivity, measured by value added per employee, is strongly positively associated with profitability in the correlation analysis. However, neither labour productivity nor firm size is statistically significant at the 5% level in the full-sample regression model. Sensitivity analysis excluding one verified but highly influential observation identifies a significant positive association between labour productivity and profitability, indicating sensitivity to firm-level heterogeneity. Cluster analysis identifies two distinct performance profiles, with relatively smaller companies exhibiting higher average labour productivity and profitability. The findings highlight the importance of considering labour productivity, firm size, and firm-level heterogeneity when assessing hotel financial performance and provide a basis for managerial benchmarking and longitudinal research. Full article

Hotel capacity in emerging destinations is often described through room counts or conventional classifications, even when these say little about how accommodation systems operate. This study investigates the accommodation sector in Villavicencio, Colombia, through the Hotel Capacity Index (ICH), a classification tool based on three variables: rooms, beds, and services. Using field data from 84 hotels, the analysis considers capacity structure, room and bed configuration, occupancy patterns, service provision, and selected operational practices. The results show a hotel system concentrated mainly in medium-capacity establishments, with 71% of the sample in the ICH-2 category. Although the sector shows some internal flexibility in the way sleeping capacity is organized, it remains only weakly differentiated in service provision and operational sophistication. Occupancy patterns also show marked seasonality, with stronger performance in the second half of the year and clear peaks in the final quarter. Limited digital integration, low levels of certification, weakly formalized feedback systems, and incomplete accessibility conditions show broader constraints in upgrading the accommodation base. The study shows that the main issue in Villavicencio is not simply the amount of hotel supply, but the composition and functionality of that supply. In emerging destinations, expanding accommodation supply is not enough when the structure of that supply remains concentrated and only weakly differentiated. Full article

Tourism plays an important role in the global economy, contributing massively to the gross domestic product (GDP) and creating numerous jobs. The introduction of emerging technologies can accelerate the sector’s growth through personalization, improved user experience and better operational efficiency. The present work investigates the impact of visible light communications (VLC) in the tourism and hospitality industry based on the analysis of the recent literature published in the last decade, with the scope of improving tourist experience, operational efficiency and sustainability. Additionally, this work aims to critically evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of implementing VLC technology in the tourism and hospitality industry. For these purposes, this study presents a narrative review of the recent academic literature. The findings indicate that VLC technology can be used in a wide range of tourism-related applications, including contactless hotel services, indoor positioning and navigation, secure communications, accessibility solutions for visually impaired individuals and energy-efficient lighting infrastructure. In addition, this review demonstrates VLC’s potential to support the development of smart and sustainable tourism destinations through the integration of user-centered communication and illumination infrastructure. Finally, this work also identifies several challenges that affect large-scale deployment, including implementation costs, line-of-sight dependency and ongoing standardization issues. Full article

The post-pandemic recovery of the hotel sector has been primarily associated with revenue growth; however, there is limited evidence on how this process translates into the generation of financial value. The aim of this study was to carry out a descriptive and exploratory financial analysis to examine how commercial growth translates into sustainable financial results in four-star hotels in the province of Imbabura, Ecuador, during the period 2019–2023. The research was carried out using a descriptive and exploratory financial analysis based on a ‘small-sample financial diagnostics’ approach, involving a longitudinal analysis of 45 firm-year observations (nine hotels × five years), compiled from complete and comparable public financial statements for the period 2019–2023. The data was organised by hotel and year, enabling an analysis of trends in operating revenue, the structure of costs and expenses, operating profit, net profit, net margin, and, as supplementary indicators, immediate liquidity, return on assets, and indebtedness. The results show that the recovery in revenue did not uniformly translate into an improvement in financial performance due to differences in operational structure and in the capacity to generate sustainable profits. As a contribution, the study proposes an integrated approach to financial diagnosis that broadens our understanding of the process by which commercial growth may or may not translate into the generation of sustainable financial value in emerging tourist destinations. Full article

The current paper concerns the interplay of the circular economy (CE) and global energy threats facing the hospitality industry. Despite the growing emphasis on CE implementation within sustainable hospitality, little empirical evidence explains how CE practices enhance hotels’ green energy resilience amid escalating global energy threats and resource uncertainty, particularly in emerging markets. Addressing this research gap, this paper investigates how the 6R CE model (Redesign, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Recover, and Rethink) strengthens green energy resilience in sustainable hotels while examining the moderating roles of policy clarity and regulations together with the influences of stakeholder collaboration and management commitment within the Saudi Arabian hospitality sector. The study adopted a four-wave temporally separated quantitative survey design, collecting data from 360 managers working in Saudi sustainable hotels across four time intervals. The proposed conceptual model was evaluated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), complemented by mediation and moderation analyses. The findings demonstrate that global energy threats strongly stimulate CE adoption (β = 0.848, p < 0.001), while CE practices substantially improve green energy resilience (β = 0.719, p < 0.001). The results further reveal a strong indirect effect through the Strength of CE Implementation (β = 0.813, p < 0.001), highlighting implementation maturity as a critical mechanism through which circular initiatives translate into resilience outcomes. The proposed model explained 55% of the variance in CE implementation and demonstrated substantial predictive capability for energy resilience. Policy clarity and regulations significantly strengthen the CE–resilience relationship, while stakeholder collaboration and management commitment further enhance these relationships. The results further identify the 6R circularity framework as an effective strategic pathway through which sustainable hotels can mitigate global energy threats while enhancing organizational resilience. This study contributes to the CE and sustainable hospitality literature by providing one of the first empirical models linking CE implementation with green energy resilience under conditions of global energy uncertainty, offering actionable implications for policymakers, hotel managers, and the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030. Full article

Although the Mediterranean diet (MD) is widely recognized as a healthy dietary pattern, its potential role as a framework for sustainable urban gastronomy has received limited attention. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from nutrition, environmental studies, gastronomy, tourism, and urban food systems. The review explores MD’s sustainability dimensions, food waste and urban food systems, cultural heritage, and trends in urban gastronomy. The findings suggest that the MD is a strong model for sustainable urban food futures, combining nutritional adequacy, relatively low environmental impact, and socio-cultural legitimacy. Evidence indicates that Mediterranean-style dietary patterns are associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions, land use, energy use, and water consumption than Western diets, while also remaining comparatively affordable when based on staple plant foods. However, important challenges remain, including affordability, especially across vulnerable social groups; dependence on local supply systems; authenticity under tourism pressure; and the need for effective governance. Overall, the evidence suggests that the MD provides a useful framework for integrating health, sustainability, and cultural heritage objectives within urban food systems. Future research should focus on city-level implementation strategies, food service and restaurant sector practices, and hotel meal planning within urban MD frameworks. Full article

The Circular Economy (CE) offers an alternative to the traditional “take–make–dispose” model and is increasingly important in hospitality due to the sector’s high resource consumption. This systematic review analyzes 159 studies published between 1995 and 2024, sourced from ABI, BSP, and WoS, and consolidates scattered knowledge on CE practices in hotels. It outlines five strategies for transitioning to CE: energy efficiency, renewable energy, water management, waste reduction, and carbon footprint reduction. These are supported by green procurement, local supply chains, eco-certifications, and regenerative branding, all of which help hotels fulfill stakeholder expectations and support local economies. Guest engagement—through nudges, incentives, co-creation, and digital tools for monitoring and feedback—is becoming increasingly important. The review shows that CE adoption is driven by internal factors such as leadership, staff training, culture, and resources, as well as external factors such as regulation, institutional pressure, and consumer demand for authenticity. Effective collaboration among managers, staff, suppliers, policymakers, and certifiers is essential for achieving systemic adoption. CE is moving from operational efficiency to broad innovation benefiting the environment, economy, and society, despite financial, regulatory, and behavioral challenges. Future research should prioritize establishing measurement standards, addressing scalability issues, and evaluating the global effectiveness of implementation. Full article

The research investigates the sequential routes through which customer-centric culture (CCC) leads to sustainable performance (SP) in the hospitality sector, by analyzing the mediating impacts of sales force automation (SFA) and big data analytics capabilities (BDACs), and the moderating impact of employee digital competence (EDC). A serial mediation model (CCC → SFA → BDACs → SP) was proposed and empirically tested using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) on survey data from 315 managerial and operational employees in five-star hotels in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, grounded in the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, and service-dominant logic. The results support all eleven hypotheses and show that SFA has a positive effect on BDACs (β = 0.391) and SP (β = 0.319), and BDACs have a significant effect on SP (β = 0.143). The CCC has a significant direct impact on SFA (β = 0.746) and SP (β = 0.421). Importantly, the serial mediation pathway (CCC → SFA → BDACs → SP) is significant (β = 0.042) and EDC significantly moderates the SFA–BDAC (β = 0.447) and BDACs–SP (β = 0.112) relationships. The model accounted for 72.1% of the variance in SP. The findings emphasize that sustainable performance is not driven by mere technology adoption but a synergistic integration of customer-oriented culture, automation, analytics, and digital workforce competencies. Full article

This research paper examines the relations between transformational leadership and sustainable behavior at both individual and organizational levels, regarding employees in Jordanian hotels. The study examines the relationships between transformational leadership practices and both employee environmental behavior and organizational sustainable behavior. A quantitative method was applied to test the relationships among the research variables; 338 valued questionnaires were used in the analysis process and to present the results. This research shows that transformational leadership has a positive influence on the employees’ motivation to act sustainably, increases their awareness of sustainability issues and enables the employees to take a proactive role in sustainable activities. The findings of this study indicate that transformational leadership supports fostering sustainable behaviors in the workplace via three major mechanisms: motivation to act sustainably, empowerment to act, and awareness of sustainability issues. Ensuring the application of transformational leadership in an organization influences the individual and organizational sustainability practices in the long run in the form of vision articulation, encourages innovation, and increases the focus on employees’ needs. The study explains the effect of sustainable behavior through major mechanisms, including motivation to act sustainably, awareness of sustainability issues, and employee proactivity, across the range of employees and the organization, offering new insights to the hospitality sector regarding long-term sustainability leadership. Full article

This study investigates how sustainable leadership enhances green performance in the tourism and hospitality sector, specifically among managers and supervisors working in five-star hotels and travel agencies, by examining the mediating roles of green innovation and green self-efficacy through the lenses of the Resource-Based View (RBV) and Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT). A quantitative research approach was adopted, utilizing survey data collected from 788 managers and supervisors employed in Egyptian five-star hotels and travel agencies operating within a highly competitive tourism destination context. The findings indicate that sustainable leadership has a significant positive effect on green performance and positively influences both green innovation and green self-efficacy. Moreover, green innovation and green self-efficacy significantly contribute to green performance and partially mediate the relationship between sustainable leadership and environmental outcomes. This study contributes to the literature on sustainability, tourism, and organizational behavior by providing an integrated framework that links sustainable leadership with organizational innovation capabilities and employees’ environmental competencies. In addition, the findings extend the explanatory power of RBV and DCT in explaining how sustainable leadership practices translate into enhanced environmental performance in tourism and hospitality organizations. From a practical perspective, the study highlights the importance of adopting leadership practices that foster green innovation, strengthen employees’ environmental confidence, and promote proactive environmental behavior within organizations. Full article

This study investigates the impact of green leadership on financial performance in the hospitality sector, focusing on the mediating roles of resource management and market positioning. Drawing upon the Resource-Based View and Stakeholder Theory, data were collected from 390 employees working in five-star hotels in Egypt and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) with SmartPLS 4.0. The findings reveal that green leadership positively influences financial performance both directly and indirectly. Specifically, green leadership enhances resource management practices and strengthens market positioning, which in turn contribute to improved financial outcomes. The mediation analysis confirms that both resource management and market positioning serve as significant mechanisms through which green leadership translates sustainability-oriented strategies into economic benefits. These findings extend current knowledge on sustainable leadership by identifying key organizational pathways linking environmental responsibility with financial success. This study also provides practical implications for hospitality managers seeking to integrate sustainability initiatives into strategic and operational decision-making to achieve long-term competitive advantage. Full article

By linking the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework with dynamic capabilities, this research investigates the various organizational enablers for Industry 4.0 technology (I4T) adoption in the hotel industry, and the relationship between I4T and overall hotel performance during the supply chain disturbances. The proposed model was tested using data collected from hotel executives in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. Results revealed that perceived benefits, technology readiness, and supply chain partner pressure were significant predictors for I4T adoption by hotels. The direct positive relationship between I4T and overall hotel performance during disruptions was not found. This relationship was mediated by the hotel’s supply chain resilience (SCR) capability, highlighting the importance of I4T and SCR for improving performance during disruptions. This study provides both theoretical insights and practical implications regarding the adoption of I4T in the hospitality sector. Full article

Crisis management has become a critical strategic concern in hospitality, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed limitations in conventional approaches to preparedness, response, and recovery. Although existing hospitality crisis management research has generated valuable insights into individual crisis phases, a limited understanding exists regarding how preparedness, crisis response, and organizational learning interact as an integrated strategic process across the crisis lifecycle. Addressing this gap, this study examines strategic crisis management within Jakarta’s five-star hotel sector and develops an integrated understanding of crisis management across pre-crisis, during-crisis, and post-crisis phases. A constructivist grounded theory approach was employed based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 senior hospitality leaders, including hotel executives, owners, and industry association representatives. The findings suggest that crisis management is best understood as an integrated strategic capability rather than a series of discrete emergency responses. Three interrelated theoretical dimensions emerged: Continuous Strategic Preparedness, characterized by adaptive readiness, environmental sensemaking, decision readiness, and financial preparedness; Coordinated Strategic Crisis Response, encompassing liquidity discipline, operational adaptation, workforce adaptability, leadership coordination, and cross-functional alignment; and Strategic Renewal Through Organizational Learning, involving the retention of effective crisis practices, capability strengthening, and strategic reorientation toward ongoing uncertainty. The study proposes an Integrated Strategic Crisis Management Framework for Hospitality Organizations that explains the mechanisms linking preparedness, response, and organizational learning as a cyclical capability-building process. By reconceptualizing crisis management as an integrated strategic capability rather than a phase-based operational response, the study contributes to hospitality crisis management scholarship and provides practical insights for hospitality organizations operating in increasingly uncertain environments. Full article

This article develops and empirically supports a multi-level model for integrating sustainable practices in the hospitality industry, using the Zhetysu region of Kazakhstan as a regional case. The theoretical basis of the study is formed by the concepts of sustainable development, ESG principles and the Triple Bottom Line framework, which are integrated into a macro-, meso- and micro-level structure of sustainability management. The empirical analysis uses regional statistical data on the hotel sector for 2022–2025, including service volume, employment, wages, accommodation capacity, bed-days, investments and environmental protection expenditures. On this basis, a system of sustainability indices was constructed to assess economic, social and environmental dynamics. The results show that the Composite Sustainability Index increased from 0.00 in 2022 to 0.66 in 2025, indicating positive but uneven progress. Social indicators demonstrated the most stable improvement, while economic sustainability remained constrained by low capacity utilisation and unstable labour productivity. Environmental indicators were the weakest component, reflecting fragmented and inconsistent green practices. The novelty of the study lies in linking ESG and Triple Bottom Line principles with measurable regional indicators and a multi-level governance model. The proposed framework and roadmap can support regional authorities, tourism organisations and hospitality enterprises in coordinating sustainability initiatives and monitoring their implementation. Full article