Beyond green promises: sustainability and the limits of employer attraction for Gen Z in tourism and hospitality

This study examines the limits of sustainability as an employer-attraction mechanism in tourism and hospitality, by testing when and under what conditions, sustainability-related employment practices shape employer attractiveness among Gen Z job seekers in Australia. Guided by the theory of symbolic attraction, we employ a mixed-methods design comprising qualitative interviews (n = 21) and two stated-choice experiments: one with a general population sample (n = 430) and one with Gen Z university students (n = 350). Across methods, instrumental job attributes (especially salary and career development) dominate Gen Z’s employer preferences, while sustainability practices exert little or no independent influence on choice for most respondents, except among those with stronger environmental sacrifice orientations. Theoretically, the study contributes to sustainable tourism employment scholarship by identifying the boundary conditions under which sustainability has limited capacity to function as an effective employer-attraction mechanism. Practically, the findings highlight the limits of values-led recruitment strategies in tourism and underscore the need to integrate sustainability commitments with credible employment conditions if workforce-focused sustainability initiatives are to be effective.