Veganism, a new hotel paradigm: Exploring the attributes of vegan-friendly hotels and guest approach behaviors

Abstract

Despite the growing interest in vegan culture and trends in veganism, research on veganism is still lacking, particularly research on vegan hotels. Therefore, this study proposes a new research category, vegan hotels, explored their attributes, and investigated how they positively affected perceived advantage, enjoyment, and the behavioral intentions of hotel guests. The study adopted concepts relevant to vegan restaurants, benefits sought from using vegan products, and the relationship between veganism and well-being. This qualitative empirical study used 440 respondents. The results of the factor analyses ascertained the six-dimensional structure of the attributes of vegan hotels. Further results of the study showed that vegan hotels have a positive effect on perceived advantage, enjoyment, and the behavioral intentions of hotel guests. The study’s results have significant theoretical implications by extending the extant literature on veganism and traditional hotel concepts to the convergence between veganism and vegan hotels.