TITLE:
Efficiency Assessment of Tourism Industry in Developing Countries in the Context of Infrastructure: A Two-Stage Super-Efficiency Slacks-Based Measure
AUTHORS:
Seyedeh Parisa Hosseini, Seyed Maziar Hosseini
KEYWORDS:
Tourism Development, Tourism Infrastructure, Developing Countries, Data Envelopment Analysis, Super Efficiency
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.9 No.4,
April
27,
2021
ABSTRACT: Most developing countries cannot earn a substantial share in the global
tourism market despite possessing a competitive advantage in resources and
tourist attraction potential. This research evaluates tourism industry
efficiency in the context of infrastructure using a performance measurement
framework based on a two-stage super-efficiency slacks-based measure approach
to identify internal sources of this issue. Data from 24 developing countries
for the years 2013, 2015, and 2017 are used. In the first stage, the tourism
industry efficiency based on infrastructure is divided into two subunits:
supporting visitor infrastructure and demand driver infrastructure. Next, the
overall efficiency scores are calculated. According to the empirical results,
the selected countries mostly had low efficiency in the tourism industry and
failed to achieve desired output level relative to their potential. The
analysis of this study shows that their unfavorable tourism industry
performance results from the lack of infrastructure, undeveloped
infrastructure, and the absence of proper strategies to establish and improve
infrastructure. These findings contribute an in-depth and useful insight into
the relationship between infrastructure status and tourism efficiency, which
can be an invaluable step towards improving the tourism industry and consequently
achieving economic prosperity and social welfare.