The connection between tourism and nature justifies the environmental concerns from tourism agents, namely global hotel chains. This paper explores the differences between smaller hotel chains and their larger global counterparts regarding environmentally sustainable practices. The research approach is qualitative, based on the analysis of 40 company websites and in-depth interviews with 18 entrepreneurs and executives. Results suggest that environmental issues are, for most companies, not a response to societal challenges (‘doing the right thing’), but a response to owners’ concerns (‘doing things right’). Hotel chains develop environmental sustainability practices, mainly for cost-reduction purposes, accommodating the owners’ demands for efficiency. Notwithstanding, there are differences according to the chain’s size. Smaller companies are less prone to adopt environmental practices and to invest in communicating them than global chains. Concerning sustainability in the hotel industry, most studies focus on specific topics and discussions. A more holistic approach to sustainability to establish a deeper understanding of sustainable business decisions in the hotel sector is scarce in the literature. This paper addresses this gap by exploring the strategic reasons behind the sustainable practices of hotel companies, namely smaller ones. Managerial implications of the results are also derived in this paper.

Literature suggests that local governance might encourage the emergence of innovative businesses. Little is known about that relationship in the context of tourism, although literature suggests governance as a way to deal with the problems of tourism destinations. Additionally, studies in entrepreneurship seldom focus on tourism. This study addresses these gaps by exploring the role of local governance in tourism entrepreneurship. The research strategy of the study is qualitative, using focus groups and semi-structured interviews with diverse local and regional stakeholders, from entrepreneurs to policymakers. Two municipalities in the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon serve as case studies. The differences in the entrepreneurial ecosystems of both territories relate to their distinctive stages of development as tourism destinations. Results suggest that the "good governance" model prevails but that a "one size fits all" approach is not helpful. Results also suggest the need for local governance models to evolve into modes of multi-level network governance, incorporating regional interaction and integration; and recognising participation as the key to democratic legitimacy, transparency, and effectiveness of public policies. With multi-level governance, public administrations at different levels of government are responsible for opening the decision-making process to other relevant actors in society. The study's theoretical contribution concerns the need to investigate hybrid governance models for tourism entrepreneurship. For practitioners (i.e., local decision-makers), this study highlights the advantages of flexibility and a multi-level approach to governance.

This article evaluates the impact of security in the hostel industry on the willingness to pay by customers. More specifically, given the importance of security in the decision to travel and in the choice of a given destination, we analyze the impact of security guest reviews on a consumer-generated website on hostel room prices. Furthermore, we investigate whether the impact of security guest reviews on the hostel room prices is higher for the hostels located in the countries with the lowest ranking in the Global Peace Index. Finally, we examine whether females and older guests are willing to pay a premium in terms of price for a hostel with a higher level of security. For this purpose, we estimate a hedonic price function for a sample of consumer reviews of 477 hostels in 22 worldwide capitals, with different levels of peace, from Hostelworld. The results highlight the importance of security on the determination of hostel room prices. We find that customers are willing to pay a higher premium in terms of price, in the least worldwide peaceful countries, for a hostel room with higher levels of security. In the case of women and older guests, the premium they are willing to pay is higher.