The theoretical development and research methodology in green hotels research: A systematic literature review

Abstract

In recent years, many hotels have adopted green practices and have become greener to attract eco-consciousness consumers and to improve their economic performance. In fact, although it is often considered unsustainable, the hospitality industry is a pioneer in implementing sustainability practices. As this phenomenon grew, the number of scientific publications on the subject proliferated. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of academic studies on green hotels by exploring the body of literature on sustainable practices in hotels, revisiting 600 articles collected through the Scopus database. This study contains various novelties that provide added value to better understand the topic under investigation. First, it explores the topic with a systematic approach to provide an exhaustive and comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon. Second, it includes a wide spectrum of scholars' publications. Investigations on the topic have increased considerably in the last few years, and this work provides an updated overview of this research field. The analysis showed that green hotels have been a hot topic in recent years. Scholars have dedicated increased attention to the topic, and publications have also increased. This growing body of literature shows different points of view, methodologies, and theories, and investigated different geographical areas. However, this topic has been primarily discussed in an experimental background with a prevalence of quantitative analysis. Social and economic aspects are almost absent, and when they are present, they are investigated jointly with environmental aspects, under the umbrella of CSR, or a more comprehensive TBL approach.