Abstract

This study examines green skills and sustainability readiness in Albania’s tourism sector using survey data from 224 tourism organizations operating across five subsectors and several regions of the country. The analysis focuses on current environmental management capabilities, future skill requirements, environmental training, and green investment. The conceptual framing combines the literature on green skills and Green Human Resource Management. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, paired-samples t-tests, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Spearman correlations, and ordinary least squares regression were employed. The findings show that current green skills are moderate, while future skill requirements are significantly higher, indicating a substantial skills gap. The largest gaps are observed in sustainable transport promotion and climate change knowledge. Organizations providing environmental training report stronger current green skills and greater sustainability readiness than those that do not. Green investment is also positively associated with current environmental capability. In addition, significant differences emerge across tourism subsectors, while size effects appear less consistent. The regression results confirm that environmental training and green investment are important predictors of current green skills. The study contributes to the literature by extending empirical evidence on green skills to an underexplored Southeast European context and by linking green skills with sustainability readiness in tourism organizations. The findings suggest that the green transition in tourism depends not only on environmental intent but also on organizational learning and investment.

IPC Classification

Keywords