The effect of sustainability practices on financial leakage in the hotel industry in Jordan Nidal Alzboun a, * , Hamzah Khawaldah a , Kenneth Backman b , DeWayne Moore c a Geography Department, Faculty of Arts, University of Jordan, Amman 11942 Jordan b Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management, Clemson University, USA c Department of Psychology, Clemson University, USA article info Article history: Received 25 October 2015 Received in revised form 28 February 2016 Accepted 7 March 2016 Keywords: Sustainability Financial leakage Hotel industry Jordan abstract This study aims to assess the effect of sustainability practices on financial leakages in the hotel industry in Jordan. A self-administered survey was distributed to hotel managers in all 213 classified hotels in Amman, Aqaba, Petra, and the Dead Sea area. Of these, 163 questionnaires were returned with a response rate of 76.5%. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were used to test research hypotheses. Despite that many studies have predicted sustainability practices to have a negative effect on financial leakages, the results of this study indicated that sustainability practices didn't reduce the financial leakage level in Jordanian hotels. However, financial leakages are predicted to be reduced through sustainability practices over time. These results could help hotels to develop financial and conservation strategies benefiting their local economies, resources, and cultures. Future research may extend this work to other tourism businesses. © 2016 The Authors. 1. Introduction Many developing countries look to the tourism industry as a powerful and feasible force for achieving economic growth (Aniah Eugene, Eja, Otu Judith, & Ushie, 2009; Scheyvens & Momsen, 2008). The primary source of this economic impact is tourist ex- penditures on a wide variety of goods and services that generate new levels of consumer demand for the host economy (Galdon, Garrigos, & Gil-Pechuan, 2013). As long as these financial re- sources are spent or re-spent locally, they foster economic devel- opment in the host countries. However, often these revenues are not an accurate indication of positive impact from tourism since in some cases the benefits flow outside the host country as leakage (Lacher & Nepal, 2010; Rahman, 2012; Supradist, 2004). This economic leakage is the main reason tourism has failed to achieve economic development for local economies (Lacher & Nepal, 2010; Mitchell & Ashley, 2007). However, determining this leakage is challenging because tourism is a complex industry involving multiple services and sub-sectors which makes it is difficult to track (Song, 2012; Font, Tapper, Schwartz, & Kornilaki, 2008). The economic leakage has a negative impact on the ability of local communities, and future economic growth and sustain- ability (Supradist, 2004). On a similar vein, tourism literature demonstrates that there is a paradigm shift from the past trend of mass tourism to alternative forms of tourism such as sustainable tourism (Bohdanowicz, 2005; Butler, 1993; Kirk, 1998; Mensah, 2006). In this context, the scholars and business leaders have realized that the appropriate way to maintain continuous economic benefit is by achieving social equity and ecological integrity, what is referred to as the “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL) (Smerecnik & Andersen, 2011). The Triple Bottom Line is of special interest to the hotel industry as it is classified among the high consumptive components of tourism in terms of energy, water, and non-durable products, in addition to the potential harmful emissions into the air, water and soil due to its functions as a service provider (Bohdanowicz, 2005; Erdogan & Baris, 2007; Kasim, 2009; Mensah, 2006). Consequently, many interested stakeholders, including academic researchers, have criticized the general policies of the hotel industry. In addressing these concerns, many hotels around the world have adopted sustainable tourism practices to reduce the negative im- pacts of their activities having realized their responsibilities in protecting the environment (Mensah, 2006; Ayuso, 2006). * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: n.alzboun@ju.edu.jo (N. Alzboun), khawaldah1@gmail.com (H. Khawaldah), frank@clemson.edu (K. Backman), moore@clemson.edu (D. Moore). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management journal homepage: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-hospitality- and-tourism-management http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2016.03.001 1447-6770/© 2016 The Authors. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management 27 (2016) 18e26