Sustainability in the accommodation industry: an approach to the materiality of services

Abstract

While tourism is recognized as a potential cause of damage to the environment, the immateriality remains as an accepted feature of the services nature, including the tourism services. The article aims to discuss the materiality of accommodation services, in the light of new theoretical approaches that have been challenging the conventional understanding of services. In order to do so, an exploratory research is carried out.  The data were collected by a literature review on the environmental performance of accommodation businesses, and systematized based on the application of the life cycle concept to describe inputs and outputs associated with the environmental aspects of the product provided by the accommodation businesses. The analytical structure of the services triangle was expanded and used in order to address the sources of the service materiality. Advancing in the understanding of the materiality of accommodation services is a central issue for sustainable tourism. Different inputs (such as energy, water, food and beverages, cleaning products, personal care products, chemicals, fossil fuels, and other products) and outputs (such as organic and inorganic waste, effluents, atmospheric emissions, noise, and odor emissions) associated to the services materiality sources were identified. These inputs and outputs are based on the material content of accommodation services that is manifested in the material systems operated (physical facilities and equipment) and in the goods that are used.