This research explores and develops a hotel sustainability business model (HSBM) to study the sustainability orientation of the Slovenian hotel industry. Based on a comparative analysis of the existing sustainability and triple bottom line models, the usual content of a three-line HSBM (economic, environmental and sociocultural) was extended to include customer satisfaction, environmental education and power to implement changes. Financial, marketing and tourism sustainability experts investigated best practices in sustainability measurements and gathered appropriate sustainability indicators; expert opinion and the Delphi method refined and reduced an initial 79 indicators to 36 operational indicators, able to fulfil the HSBM's sub-categories within the extended triple bottom line. The HSBM's concept was used to study the sustainability of Slovenian hotel firms to reveal how important these indicators are for hotel managers and do they monitor them. Results indicated strong importance and measurement of economic and marketing indicators, such as profitability and customer satisfaction. Following the socialist tradition, companies recognise the importance of human resources, but the importance of environmental education and awareness building, biodiversity, and the establishment of partnerships with stakeholders to implement sustainable tourism development are neglected. Economic performance was, for example, monitored by 66% of respondents, environmental performance by 28% and social performance by 42%.

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Appeals to people’s pro-environmental values have been shown to trigger pro-environmental behavior across a range of contexts. The present study tests the potential of such interventions in a hedonic context where behavioral change does not generate utilitarian benefits (tourism). Results from a field experiment in a four-star hotel in Slovenia indicate that appeals to people’s pro-environmental values fail to significantly increase tourists’ hotel towel reuse and decrease room electricity consumption, suggesting that interventions in hedonic contexts—such as tourism—may require the use of more tangible benefits in order to change behavior.

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Tourist behavior has a critical impact on the environmental sustainability of tourism. The hedonic nature of tourism and lack of an economic incentive make tourist behavior particularly hard to change. Making tourists behave more environmentally friendly would have substantial environmental benefits. This is the aim of the present study. Three alternative approaches are tested. The most successful approach—based on sharing monetary savings with guests—leads to a 42 percent change in one specific tourist behavior with negative environmental consequences. This new sharing-based approach significantly outperforms current approaches of increasing awareness of environmental consequences and of tourist ability to make a change. Tourism businesses should consider replacing current appeals with sharing-based schemes.

Purpose -The purpose of the research is to conceptualize a model of tourist satisfaction at the destination level which can serve as a background for designing a universal, parsimonious, short and easily applicable measurement instrument.Design/methodology/approach -The conceptual model was developed on the basis of existing theoretical and empirical research in the fields of marketing and tourism.Findings -The model includes eight latent constructs, with tourist satisfaction being the central one. The analysis of the antecedents (quality, image, value, and costs and risks) of customer satisfaction provides insights into the processes underlying the creation of satisfaction, while the outcome constructs (complaint behavior and loyalty) indicate the consequences of (dis)satisfaction.Research limitations/implications -Designing a parsimonious and easily applicable measurement instrument imposes some limitations with respect to the number of constructs and measured variables included. The inclusion of additional constructs/variables should provide a more comprehensive insight into customer satisfaction and a more solid basis for strategic decision-making but at the same time it is likely to reduce the model's transparency and universality.Practical implications -The results of a continuous customer satisfaction monitoring should serve as an input for a trend analysis and strategic discussions regarding the development of a tourist destination. The ultimate goals of monitoring satisfaction include identifying strategic objectives at the destination level, preparing tactical and operational plans and ultimately increasing the competitiveness of a given destination.Originality/value -Achieving customer satisfaction should be one of the most important goals of every DMO and, to our knowledge, a few universal cause-and-effect measurement instruments/models have been developed to support this goal. The proposed model provides a basis for the continuous monitoring and improvement of the competitiveness of a given destination.

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