Renewable solar energy integration in urban green hotels development: Spatial suitability assessment and policy implications

Energy is a critical resource in the hospitality industry, and renewable sources can provide both economic and environmental benefits, supporting sustainable tourism development. This study develops a spatial assessment framework to evaluate the potential for urban green hotel development with a focus on solar energy integration. Hotels located in the cities of Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, Shiraz, and Tabriz, as Iran’s major tourist-receiving cities, were selected as the study sites. The framework combines expert-informed criteria, multi-criteria decision-making, and spatial analysis to identify and map suitable locations for urban solar photovoltaic systems (USPVS) deployment in hotels. Two analytical approaches were applied in this study. In the first approach, the potential of each hotel was evaluated relative to other buildings in the city to determine its positional standing within the wider urban context. In the second approach, the hotels were assessed exclusively in comparison with one another to enable direct ranking among them. Results indicate that solar availability, population density, and building characteristics are the most influential factors for USPVS development. The results of the first approach showed that the share of hotels classified in the very high potential category for USPVS development was 1.4% in Tehran, 3.9% in Mashhad, 19.0% in Isfahan, 6.9% in Shiraz, and 13.7% in Tabriz. The results of the second approach indicated higher proportions in several cities, with 7.7% in Tehran, 11.2% in Mashhad, 11.5% in Isfahan, 8.3% in Shiraz, and 13.7% in Tabriz of hotels falling into the very high potential category for USPVS development. These findings provide practical guidance for investors, tourism managers, and policymakers to support sustainable hotel development and renewable energy adoption in urban tourism, and the framework can be applied in cities worldwide.