Solid waste circulation in tourism: a close study of accommodation service establishments in Hoi An City, Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Tourism in Vietnam has become an important sector of the economy. Its environmental impacts include the quantity of waste generated. This study aims to assess the compositions of solid waste generated within diverse accommodation service establishments (ASEs) in Hoi An City to understand the differences across accommodation types and generating areas. The analysis indicated that most of the ASEs provided multiple services and waste components differed among generating areas. Initiatives for optimising the recovered material flows from waste at the ASEs were proposed. A decentralised-centralised hybrid model was suggested as a suitable approach for waste circulation in the accommodation service sector. The training of staff in the ASEs and tourists, as well, is crucial. So is the participation of social entities in the city’s waste management.

KEYWORDS:

• Hospitality
• sustainability
• sustainable tourism
• waste circulation

Acknowledgments

The authors express their gratitude to Van Lang University, Vietnam, for funding this research project. We also extend our thanks to Lam Truc Thanh, Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc, as well as friends and colleagues in Hoi An City for their assistance with data collection for this study. Finally, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and the chief editor for his enthusiastic support and editorial contributions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2024.2379741