Efficiency in the holiday and other short-stay accommodation industry

Abstract

This study extends previous empirical efficiency research by focusing on a tourism sector which has limited evidence to date: the holiday and other short-stay accommodation industry (tourist apartments and hostels). The sample comprises 12,864 firm-level observations during the period 2005–2016. First, we calculate the efficiency index using a non-radial Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Second, we test the association between efficiency index and contextual factors using both Tobit and bootstrapped regression. Another major contribution is the use of a radial DEA model to confirm the results of the study. The current study offers new insights by focusing on an industry with scarce evidence, using radial and non-radial DEA approaches, and examining a wide variety of efficiency drivers. The efficiency results are examined by year, region and tourist destination type (including tourism dimensions such as rural, cultural and wine tourism). This is an important novelty of the study. The main findings reveal that the most efficient tourism destinations correspond to mixed or diversified destinations: those that combine some dimensions such as cultural, rural and wine tourism. The regressions models show that environmental, macroeconomic and business variables are drivers of tourism competitiveness. Taken together, the study goes a step further in the efficiency field.