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Author(S): Maria Kalogera

Abstract: 

The integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria into accounting and financial reporting is among the most consequential regulatory reforms facing the hotel industry. This article examines how the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD; 2022/2464/EU), the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the ISSB’s IFRS S1/S2 reshape hotel accounting practice, with an emphasis on the Greek hotel industry and a comparative analysis with Cyprus as a representative island tourism economy within the European Union. Combining a qualitative analysis of the regulatory framework — including the 2025 Omnibus simplification package — with a structured narrative review of the literature (2017–2026), it highlights three critical accounting challenges: measuring the carbon footprint across Scopes 1–3, valuing ESG risks and stranded assets, and social reporting under ESRS S1/S2. Read through legitimacy and stakeholder theory, the comparative analysis shows that divergent national energy mixes and accounting frameworks (Greek GAAP vs. IFRS) create structurally unequal starting points under an ostensibly uniform standard: Greece’s above-average renewable electricity mix gives its hotels a Scope 2 advantage, whereas Cyprus’s fossil-intensive grid imposes a higher Scope 2 burden that is largely beyond firm-level control, even as Cyprus retains an institutional advantage through its familiarity with IFRS. Overall, the accountant’s role is evolving into a central function in integrated sustainable value management, requiring new competencies, interdisciplinary collaboration and investment in information infrastructure.

Keywords: ESG accounting, CSRD/ESRS, carbon accounting, hotel industry, Greece, Cyprus

Corresponding Author Affiliation*: Department of Business Administration, University of Patras, Greece

Print ISSN: 2616-518X; Online ISSN: 2616-4701

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