As a response to climate change, energy shortages and increasing impact of tourism activities, over the past few years initiatives in heritage sites have sought to promote the introduction of environmental technologies and sustainable tourism initiatives. As Sharpley (2009:57) points out, ‘global tourism development policy has not only become more explicitly aligned with the principle of sustainable development, but it has also embraced a more pragmatic perspective in addressing contemporary developmental challenges’. Asia’s emerging economies and destinations are emblematic of the ‘conservation or development’ dilemma. The World Heritage status also brings along a new set of challenges and opportunities (Leask, 2006), so that many destinations in the region are benefiting from the increased visibility and a booming tourism industry, but are also dealing with increasing commercialisation, loss of authenticity, alongside the first environmental and cultural backlashes due to mismanagement and speculation. While publications on heritage management and heritage tourism abound, no study has yet investigated the actual situation of environmental practices adoption. The investigation of environmental management practices in hotels has primarily covered developed economies and sun-sand-sea destinations, while the environmental performance of hotels in or nearby World Heritage Sites (WHS) remains unexplored.

This study seeks to fill this gap by taking hotels as the unit of analysis, and examining how other stakeholders in heritage management can affect their behaviour. It develops a framework to analyse the adoption of different environmental practices and their impacting factors at individual, organisational and contextual levels. The aim of the research is to explore the conditions of different heritage sites in Asia and advance the understanding of the dynamics of environmental innovation and technology domestication in heritage tourism. It adopts a mixed-method multiple case study approach to investigate the cases of four WHS: George Town and Melaka (Malacca) in Malaysia (cultural heritage), and Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong in China (natural heritage). A total of 76 interviews addressed the main stakeholders identified in each heritage site, namely heritage managers, government officials, non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives, experts and advisers to local authorities, architects, local tourism and environmental technology entrepreneurs. In addition, four surveys with a total of 204 respondents were conducted to analyse the environmental practices adopted by the hotel industry in each case.

Results indicate that local dynamics exert a strong influence over the creation and adoption of different environmental practices. These local dynamics ultimately derive from a place’s historical and cultural endowment and from its geographical characteristics. As an example, the role of civil society groups in George Town, along with the presence of ‘traditional recycling collectors’ and the strong entrepreneurial spirit of local business people that developed through the city’s thriving past as a trade port and centre for political opposition have contributed to the creation of a vibrant, diverse and interconnected scene in both heritage management and in the accommodation sector. The number and variety of strategies and technologies adopted reflect the dynamic character of the stakeholders in the heritage site which, as a result, has developed a stronger resilience to the negative impact of tourism as well as rising property prices and illegal renovation works. These stakeholders also enhance the hoteliers’ environmental and conservation values, and contribute to their information acquisition and sharing, which are positively associated with the adoption of environmental practices. Results in Malaysia also clearly show that the three categories of environmental practices can be associated with different impacting factors, among which the organisational ones (chain versus non-chain affiliated, heritage versus non-heritage hotels) reveal a difference in hotel profiles.

In the two national parks, the limited presence of non-governmental actors as well as the strong focus on economic gains has resulted in weaker environmental measures, which are implemented mainly for the purpose of cost reduction. Another interesting finding is the change in the socio-economic structures of the small villages surrounding the park. In the past few years, the local Tibetan population, to which most of the land belongs, witnessed a dramatic change in lifestyle due to the economic gains provided by tourism. While some are beginning to reflect on the environmental impacts of this ‘express tourism’, and starting to elaborate on how to shift to a more sustainable paradigm, others seem to be pressured by the uneven distribution of economic benefits to exploit any opportunity. This has generated a highly competitive environment, in which new players who come from other parts of the province to take advantage of the strong tourism emerge every season.

In conclusion, the four cases depict different scenarios in which the social fabric of the place is central to the formulation of responses at institutional and industry levels to the pressures on environment and the local culture. The interplay of different local dynamics ultimately results in different technological regimes, levels of competition and diversification, but also in the skills and values of hoteliers. This study showed that culturally diverse and interconnected environments that present a heterogeneous set of players can generate more diversified solutions to sustainability challenges. On the contrary, a low level of diversification and a lack of other important actors such as civil society groups and suppliers can lead to unsustainable competition levels and to a ‘race to the bottom’ that will push hotels to cut down on environmental practices that do not provide an immediate return on investment. Finally, all cases reveal a negative effect of customer demand on environmental practices adoption and minor intervention by government and heritage managers, despite this is critically needed to counter market forces and regulate tourism development.