Circular economy and sustainable strategies in the hospitality industry: Current trends and empirical implications

Abstract

The European Union has enacted several strategies to reach sustainability and tackle climate change. Among them, the New circular economy action plan and the Farm to Fork Strategy could represent for hotels, restaurants and resorts the leverage points towards sustainable and economic development. The present research, through a systematic and critical review of the current trends in the hospitality industry in Europe, explores and investigates 62 papers published in national and international journals. It fills in the gaps related to circular economy, farm to fork and sustainable resource and waste management empirical practices in the hospitality industry. It emerges that food waste, water and energy consumption have been the most topical concerns from 2011 to 2021, whereas ecosystems protection, rural and urban development need more care. As a common thread, consumers’ and operators’ awareness helps in translating economic into environmental benefits, whereas the development of life cycle inventory databases and dashboards to guide tourism must be implemented without delay.