Over the last years, the lodging industry started to implement a wide spectrum of green practices to mitigate its pressure on the environment and to respond to the growing consumers’ environmental concerns. Recently, scholar’s attention to guest perception of hotels green practices has been grown. This paper through a PLS-SEM analysis, presents the results of a survey targeted to the guests of an ecolabel-awarded hotel, investigating how consumers perceive the actions implemented by hotels to reduce their environmental impacts. The study provides hotel managers with insights from guests staying in green hotels. The main objectives are to explore how guests perceive “green hotel” practices and to test the relationship between guest perceptions of hotel green practices and behavioral intentions. Additionally, the impact of green practices in determining a specific loyalty towards green hotels has been tested. Finally, the study investigates the role of guest satisfaction as a mediator for guest loyalty. Results of this study supported the research hypotheses showing that customers positively recognize the hotels’ environmental commitment, with a significant influence on guest satisfaction and loyalty. Findings also suggest that guest who experienced the stay in a green hotel are more likely to develop a specific loyalty toward the hotels implementing green practices. Implications, limitations and future lines of research are also provided.

Introduction

The tourism sector is one of the world’s largest industry, contributing to 10.4% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and a key enabler of economic development globally. Tourism is a trillion-dollar industry, driving the 7% of global exports and proving approximately 1 in 10 of all jobs (WTTC, 2018). On the other hand, tourism activities strongly impacts on the environment, contributing not only to environmental degradation but also to the raising of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions associated with the sector (Pang et al., 2013). Tourism account for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions (Lenzen et al., 2018). The study of Lenzen et al. (2018) found that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s annual global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 bn tons of CO2 equivalent. Additionally, forecasts indicate that the tourism industry is becoming more energy, freshwater, land and food intense, and within 25–۴۵ years tourism resources use will double (Gossling and Peeters, 2015). Climate change and tourism are closely interrelated. While the tourism sector massively contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, mostly related to transportation, it also faces profound impacts from global warming being one of the most vulnerable industries to environmental degradation and climate change (Gossling and Peeters, 2015; Smith, 1990). Considering this aspect, the success of the tourism industry in the long-term is strictly linked to its capacity to manage environmental sustainability issues (Bramwell and Lane, 2008). Therefore, addressing sustainability has become a major concern for the industry, policy makers and consumers (Lee et al., 2011). Increased pressure on the environment also come from to the accommodation sector, responsible for roughly 20% of the tourism emissions.