Circular Economy Pathways for Sustainable Hajj Hospitality: Linking Waste to Resource and Water-to-Value Approaches

The fast increase in religious tourism, and especially the Hajj pilgrimage that is held every year to Makkah, offers a burning question in the trade-offs between the development of hospitality and sustainability. This paper presents the discussion of circular economy solutions to the specifics of Hajj hospitality via two fundamental modules, which are waste-to-resource and water-to-value. These are strategies meant to help turn around the environmental impact burden of mass tourism into sustainable innovation. The article informs against waste management practices and water reuse technologies and evaluates the significance of green human resource management (Green HRM) as critical elements in sustainable pilgrimage hospitality in a synthesizing literature review with reliable support of 24 scholarly documents. It also brings to focus the policy, smart infrastructure, and supply chain innovation, as drivers of the circular economy. There are indications that capitalizing on Islamic environmental ethics and green innovations, can reinforce ecological and socio-economic performance, which provides a replicable example to other religious tourism destinations worldwide. It will wrap up the paper with a list of strategic recommendations on how to transform Hajj hospitality into a sustainable and circular industry in line with the vision of 2030 and UN Sustainable Development Goals.