The circular economy has mostly been focused on by the production industries. It is certainly easy to recognise how the circular economy fits into the manufacturing sector, however, there is a strong but less visible link between circularity and tourism.

Las UNWTO believe that the travel and tourism sector is well positioned to act as a powerful enable of circularity, and it will benefit from circular value creation and value capture within chains. The travel and tourism sectors are dependent on agriculture, food, the built environment and transport for its resource flows, assets and commodity value chains. All these dependencies can follow circular economy principles and should do.

Accommodations are considered asset heavy businesses. Within these asset heavy businesses, circular procurement enables circularity in the supply chain, which enables processes which extend and optimise product usage and avoids waste. Accommodations require the mass use of material resources, including, energy, water, food, furniture, building materials etc. that could drastically become more sustainability of the business pursues circular economy principles and solutions. Additionally, greenhouse gas consumption in accommodations is large, there circular economies reliance upon renewables is encouraged within tourism to reduce resource dependence and increase the businesses resilience against market shocks.  

Accommodations can look at their procurement; prioritising products which are produced under the circular economy framework will be essential to being part of the circular economy. Food waste is a big part of tourism, but it can be avoided. Under circular economy, the food system should not create waste. There are methods to prevent food waste (e.g. storage, monitoring), surplus edible food should be redistributed to those who need it and other food should become new products (e.g. compost).