‘Greening’ the hospitality and restaurants industry

Abstract

While the impact of tourism on the environment has now been widely discussed in the literature, there is not much knowledge about the environmental orientation of firms in the tourism sectors. Are tourism firms active in what concerns adoption of environmental innovations? How these eco-innovations articulate with other forms of innovation? Are the firms in these sectors being pressured to ‘green’ its operations? This paper investigates these questions in relation to hospitality and restaurants within the context of Portugal. The study draws on quantitative firm level data from the community innovation survey (CIS) for restaurants and hospitality. Our paper provides evidence that the traditional focus on ‘technology’ as a push and on regulation might be overstated for the case of Hospitality and restaurants firms’.