Is tourism going green? A literature review on green innovation for sustainable tourism

Adopting a sustainability perspective is of growing importance in developing tourism, as this can help drive value creation. Implementing “greener” and more sustainable strategies by tourism-based companies and destinations helps reflect the increasing environmental concerns influencing tourist behavior and consumption patterns. In this vein, ecofriendly initiatives represent a major focus of innovation for tourist companies and destinations in reshaping their strategies to reduce the environmental impact and manage relationships with key stakeholders. This article explores how academic research has addressed the role of green innovation in fostering the value creation activities of tourist companies and destinations. To do so, a systematic literature review was performed on 61 journal articles addressing green and sustainable innovation in the tourism industry. Findings support the academic debate on the role of green innovation for sustainable tourism by identifying the main streams and gaps in this research domain. The results return a picture of a fragmented research field—in terms of both theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches—that requires further investigation.