Assessing the adoption of sustainability practices in tourism industry: Insights from a developing country

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess the key determinants of sustainability practices and policy adoption in small- and medium-sized tourism accommodation firms and its possible impact on the firm’s competitive advantages.

Design/methodology/approach

A combined model has been developed and tested with a set of relevant hypotheses based on primary data collected from tourism firm’s owners and personnel. Structural equation modeling has been used to test and validate the hypotheses.

Findings

The key results indicate that collaboration and innovation of tourism firms, employee culture, technological infrastructure, tourism intermediary’s sustainability practices and top management support have a significant impact on sustainability practices adoption, whereas government sustainable tourism policy and local’s attitude toward sustainability have an insignificant impact.

Practical implications

The findings assist managers and owners of tourism accommodation firms to re-address their policy and operational processes toward sustainability. This study is an endeavor to bridge the knowledge gap of current literature on sustainable practice adoption and tourism accommodation firm. This would be ensured through encouraging the economic aspect of sustainability practices and also facilitate social well-being, which is a real contribution that ought to practice to other countries where the tourist area is environmentally adverse tremendous.

Social implications

Considering sustainability is a social commitment, this study positively changes tourists’ behavioral approach reducing the undesirable use of social resources and maximizing the enduring socio-economic and environmental development for social well-being.

Originality/value

The novelty of this empirical study is that sustainability practices and policies adoption is entirely a new phenomenon. However, the mediating impact of the construct on the competitive advantage of small and medium tourism accommodation firms enhances the effectiveness of emerging tourism economy.

Citation

Islam, M.F., Zhang, J. and Hasan, N. (2020), "Assessing the adoption of sustainability practices in tourism industry: Insights from a developing country", The Bottom Line, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 94-115. https://doi.org/10.1108/BL-09-2019-0113