Sustainable Tourism in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Investigating the Effect of Green Practices on Hotels Attributes and Customer Preferences in Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

Environmental practices have become an important matter in all aspects of life and industries, especially in the post-COVID-19 era. However, these practices continue to face many criticisms about their seriousness and effectiveness. In this context, this study aims to analyze the relationship between adopting green practices in hotels on one side and hotel image, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty on the other side, considering the star-level rating system of the hotels and the hotel operating categories (chain or independent). This study depended on a sample of 235 hotels in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Several analytical methods were used to achieve the study aim, including descriptive statistics, t-test, arithmetic averages comparison, text mining, NLP, and sentiment analysis. This study revealed that: (I) The higher the hotel star rank, the better the reviews and valuation factors. (II) Hotels that operate in chains show more attention to environmental practices. (III) Customers are more loyal to and satisfied with green hotels, and this increases as the hotel’s star rating increases.