Аннотация
Despite the growing prominence of sustainability frameworks in tourism and hospitality, empirical evidence on the operational readiness of hotel industries in emerging and peripheral destinations remains limited. Existing research has largely focused on sustainability outcomes, while comparatively little attention has been paid to the institutional and managerial conditions that determine the feasibility of implementation at the regional level. This study develops and applies an adapted assessment framework based on the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria to evaluate the readiness of the hotel industry in the Zhetysu region of Kazakhstan to implement sustainable development principles. The analysis employs a composite readiness index constructed across four dimensions – institutional – managerial, economic, socio-cultural, and environmental sustainability – using Likert-scale measurements and complemented by SWOT analysis. The findings indicate a moderate overall level of sustainability readiness, with relatively stronger institutional and economic preparedness and markedly weaker environmental readiness, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency, waste management, and biodiversity protection. The results further reveal a pronounced gap between formally established sustainability strategies at the governmental level and their practical adoption within hospitality enterprises. By shifting the analytical focus from outcome-based sustainability metrics to readiness-oriented institutional diagnostics, this study contributes to sustainability research in tourism and hospitality. The proposed framework offers a transferable tool for assessing sustainability readiness in emerging destinations and provides evidence-based insights for designing targeted policy instruments that support the transition toward integrated and operationally grounded models of sustainable hospitality development.