sustainability Article The Role of Performance and Environmental Sustainability Indicators in Hotel Competitiveness Zorica Duric 1 and Jasna Potoˇ cnik Topler 2, *   Citation: Duric, Z.; Potoˇ cnik Topler, J. The Role of Performance and Environmental Sustainability Indicators in Hotel Competitiveness. Sustainability 2021, 13, 6574. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13126574 Academic Editors: Chris Roberts and Colin Michael Hall Received: 28 April 2021 Accepted: 4 June 2021 Published: 9 June 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Faculty of Tourism and Sports, University of Educons, Radniˇ cka 30a, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia; zorina.duric@gmail.com 2 Faculty of Tourism, University of Maribor, Cesta prvih borcev 36, 8250 Brežice, Slovenia * Correspondence: jasna.potocnik1@um.si Abstract: Environmental protection and environmental sustainability are becoming increasingly important factors in the hotel business and their competitiveness, in a market that brings numerous benefits. Environmental sustainability is, increasingly, considered one of the most important functions of the hotel business, as well as communication and marketing, which attracts a larger number of guests. Some of the key aspects of hotel environmental sustainability are performance and environmental sustainability indicators, as well as hotel management of environmental performance in order to establish efficiency in that process. The principal question arising is how environmentally sustainable business affects hotel performance, and what are the most important indicators of the environmental hotel business. The aim of this article is to offer an insight into, and analysis of, performance and indicators of the environmental sustainability of hotels through the relevant literature. A case study from Serbia is used to point out the complexity and the significance of these indicators in the hotel business, as well as to emphasise the importance of environmental reports in the case of Serbia. The findings of our study are significant because they help hotel managers identify new opportunities for employing more sustainable processes for saving resources. Keywords: sustainable business; tourism; performance; indicators; hotel; communication; marketing 1. Introduction The hotel industry represents an essential part of the tourism industry and, conse- quently, on the one hand, pollutes the environment, while on the other hand, due to its part in the tourism industry, it has many opportunities to contribute significantly to low- ering its negative impacts on the environment, such as global warming and depletion of natural resources [1]. Higher environmental awareness, the intersection between business and environmental issues [2] and some other changes, such as digitalisation in the last twenty years, have shown that there is a need for the improvement of effectiveness and efficacy of hotels [3]. Environmental protection and addressing key environmental issues are becoming increasingly important factors in the hotel business and influence hoteliers’ competitiveness in the market, whereby the key issue is their ability to manage environ- mental performance and establish efficiency in that process. In the extremely competitive market, sustainability is an advantage [4], and the success of a hotel is dependent upon a safe and attractive environment [5]. Tourists and hotel guests have a positive attitude to- wards green hotel practices, which are often termed “green hospitality” in the literature [6]. In addition, the inclusion of sustainable practices in hotel strategies represents one of the key competitive business development mechanisms [7]. The devotion to environmental sustainable development and the quality of services have a meaningful positive impact on hotel performance [8,9]. Hotels having a proactive application of environmental sustainable business achieve a high level of economic performance, and also a positive relationship between environmental management and the overall performance of the company [10]. Many studies have highlighted the positive impact of environmental sustainable business Sustainability 2021, 13, 6574. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126574 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability