IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/toueco/v23y2017i2p316-342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

UNESCO sites and performance trend of Italian regional tourism destinations

Author

Listed:
  • Tiziana Cuccia

    (University of Catania, Italy)

  • Calogero Guccio

    (University of Catania, Italy)

  • Ilde Rizzo

    (University of Catania, Italy)

Abstract

This article analyzes the role of United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sites on the enhancement of tourism destinations (TDs) performance, taking the Italian regions over the period 1995–2010 as a case study. Specifically, we aim at studying the effect of the inscription in the World Heritage List (WHL) upon the dynamics of the efficiency of the Italian regions as TDs. We use a two-stage data envelopment analysis window analysis, to detect efficiency trends and resort to both semiparametric pooled-truncated and panel data estimators to evaluate the determinants of the efficiency changes in TDs over time. Moreover, we test for the presence of spatial dependence in the efficiency of TDs. The results reveal that the WHL does not play a significant role in enhancing technical efficiency of TDs. These empirical findings are robust to alternative estimators and model specifications. Furthermore, the spatial analysis does not reveal significant spillover effects in the efficiency of TDs.

Suggested Citation

  • Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2017. "UNESCO sites and performance trend of Italian regional tourism destinations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 316-342, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:23:y:2017:i:2:p:316-342
    DOI: 10.1177/1354816616656266
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1354816616656266
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1354816616656266?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno S. Frey & Paolo Pamini, 2009. "World Heritage: Where Are We? An Empirical Analysis," CREMA Working Paper Series 2009-31, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    2. Leopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2000. "A general methodology for bootstrapping in non-parametric frontier models," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(6), pages 779-802.
    3. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Botti, Laurent & Peypoch, Nicolas & Robinot, Elisabeth & Solonandrasana, Bernardin & A., George Assaf, 2011. "Performance of French destinations: Tourism attraction perspectives," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 141-146.
    4. Crouch, Geoffrey I. & Ritchie, J. R. Brent, 1999. "Tourism, Competitiveness, and Societal Prosperity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 137-152, March.
    5. Roberto Patuelli & Maurizio Mussoni & Guido Candela, 2016. "The Effects of World Heritage Sites on Domestic Tourism: A Spatial Interaction Model for Italy," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Roberto Patuelli & Giuseppe Arbia (ed.), Spatial Econometric Interaction Modelling, chapter 0, pages 281-315, Springer.
    6. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    7. John M. Piotrowski & Mr. Rabah Arezki & Reda Cherif, 2009. "Tourism Specialization and Economic Development: Evidence from the UNESCO World Heritage List," IMF Working Papers 2009/176, International Monetary Fund.
    8. Cellini, Roberto, 2011. "Is UNESCO recognition effective in fostering tourism? A comment on Yang, Lin and Han," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 452-454.
    9. Fried, Harold O. & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Shelton S. (ed.), 2008. "The Measurement of Productive Efficiency and Productivity Growth," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195183528, Decembrie.
    10. Maria Francesca Cracolici & Peter Nijkamp & Piet Rietveld, 2008. "Assessment of Tourism Competitiveness by Analysing Destination Efficiency," Tourism Economics, , vol. 14(2), pages 325-342, June.
    11. Bernardino Benito & José Solana & Pilar López, 2014. "Determinants of Spanish Regions' Tourism Performance: A Two-Stage, Double-Bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 20(5), pages 987-1012, October.
    12. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    13. Yang, Chih-Hai & Lin, Hui-Lin & Han, Chia-Chun, 2010. "Analysis of international tourist arrivals in China: The role of World Heritage Sites," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 827-837.
    14. Maria Francesca Cracolici & Peter Nijkamp & Miranda Cuffaro, 2007. "Efficiency and Productivity of Italian Tourist Destinations: A Quantitative Estimation Based on Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Method," Springer Books, in: Álvaro Matias & Peter Nijkamp & Paulo Neto (ed.), Advances in Modern Tourism Research, chapter 0, pages 325-343, Springer.
    15. Cuccia, Tiziana & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2016. "The effects of UNESCO World Heritage List inscription on tourism destinations performance in Italian regions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 494-508.
    16. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    17. Valentina Bosetti & Mariaester Cassinelli & Alessandro Lanza, 2007. "Benchmarking in Tourism Destinations; Keeping in Mind the Sustainable Paradigm," Springer Books, in: Álvaro Matias & Peter Nijkamp & Paulo Neto (ed.), Advances in Modern Tourism Research, chapter 0, pages 165-180, Springer.
    18. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2007. "Estimation and inference in two-stage, semi-parametric models of production processes," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 136(1), pages 31-64, January.
    19. Léopold Simar & Paul Wilson, 2011. "Two-stage DEA: caveat emptor," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 36(2), pages 205-218, October.
    20. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 1998. "Sensitivity Analysis of Efficiency Scores: How to Bootstrap in Nonparametric Frontier Models," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(1), pages 49-61, January.
    21. Claudio Detotto & Manuela Pulina & Juan Brida, 2014. "Assessing the productivity of the Italian hospitality sector: a post-WDEA pooled-truncated and spatial analysis," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 103-121, October.
    22. Simar, Leopold & Wilson, Paul W., 2002. "Non-parametric tests of returns to scale," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 115-132, May.
    23. Mette Asmild & Joseph Paradi & Vanita Aggarwall & Claire Schaffnit, 2004. "Combining DEA Window Analysis with the Malmquist Index Approach in a Study of the Canadian Banking Industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 67-89, January.
    24. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "The Economic Theory of Index Numbers and the Measurement of Input, Output, and Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1393-1414, November.
    25. Rajiv D. Banker & Ram Natarajan, 2008. "Evaluating Contextual Variables Affecting Productivity Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 48-58, February.
    26. Yang, Chih-Hai & Lin, Hui-Lin, 2011. "Is UNESCO recognition effective in fostering tourism? A comment on Yang, Lin and Han: Reply," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 455-456.
    27. Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Efthymios G., 2015. "Incorporating destination quality into the measurement of tourism performance: A Bayesian approach," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 58-71.
    28. JG. Brida & C. Detotto & M. Pulina, 2011. "How efficient is the Italian hospitality sector? A window DEA and truncated-Tobit analysis," Working Paper CRENoS 201102, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    29. Tsionas, Efthymios G. & George Assaf, A., 2014. "Short-run and long-run performance of international tourism: Evidence from Bayesian dynamic models," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 22-36.
    30. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    31. Álvaro Matias & Peter Nijkamp & Paulo Neto (ed.), 2007. "Advances in Modern Tourism Research," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-7908-1718-8, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrej Srakar & Eva Kodric-Dacic & Klemen Koman & Damjan Kavas, 2017. "Efficiency of Slovenian General Public Libraries: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-07-2017, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Sep 2017.
    2. Bertacchini, Enrico & Revelli, Federico & Zotti, Roberto, 2023. "Lord, how I want to be in that number! On the blessing of UNESCO World Heritage listing," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 202304, University of Turin.
    3. Carlucci, Fabio & Corcione, Carlo & Mazzocchi, Paolo & Trincone, Barbara, 2021. "The role of logistics in promoting Italian agribusiness: The Belt and Road Initiative case study," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    4. Cathrine Linnes & Holly Itoga & Jerome Agrusa & Joseph Lema, 2021. "Sustainable Tourism Empowered by Social Network Analysis to Gain a Competitive Edge at a Historic Site," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 2(4), pages 1-15, October.
    5. Bernardina Algieri & Antonio à lvarez, 2023. "Assessing the ability of regions to attract foreign tourists: The case of Italy," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(3), pages 788-811, May.
    6. Zhenjie Liao & Lijuan Zhang, 2021. "Spatial distribution evolution and accessibility of A-level scenic spots in Guangdong Province from the perspective of quantitative geography," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(11), pages 1-18, November.
    7. Guccio, C. & Lisi, D. & Martorana, M.F. & Pignataro, G., 2020. "Incorporating quality in the efficiency assessment of hospitals using a generalized directional distance function approach," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 20/17, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    8. Riccardo Beltramo & Giovanni Peira & Alessandro Bonadonna, 2021. "Creating a Tourism Destination through Local Heritage: The Stakeholders’ Priorities in the Canavese Area (Northwest Italy)," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-18, March.
    9. Elina Simone & Rosaria Rita Canale & Amedeo Maio, 2019. "Do UNESCO World Heritage Sites Influence International Tourist Arrivals? Evidence from Italian Provincial Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 345-359, November.
    10. Canale, Rosaria Rita & De Simone, Elina & Di Maio, Amedeo & Parenti, Benedetta, 2019. "UNESCO World Heritage sites and tourism attractiveness: The case of Italian provinces," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 114-120.
    11. Calogero Guccio & Domenico Lisi & Anna Mignosa & Ilde Rizzo, 2018. "Does cultural heritage monetary value have an impact on visits? An assessment using official Italian data," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(3), pages 297-318, May.
    12. Hyo-Jae Joun & Hany Kim, 2020. "Productivity Evaluation of Tourism and Culture for Sustainable Economic Development: Analyzing South Korea’s Metropolitan Regions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-19, April.
    13. Wei Guo & Xin Zhang, 2022. "Regional Tourism Performance Research: Knowledge Foundation, Discipline Structure, and Academic Frontier," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    14. Zhen Su & Joshua R. Aaron & William C. McDowell & Dan Dan Lu, 2019. "Sustainable Synergies between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: An Efficiency Evaluation Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    15. Guccio, Calogero & Mazza, Isidoro & Mignosa, Anna & Rizzo, Ilde, 2018. "A round trip on decentralization in the tourism sector," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 140-155.
    16. Wang, Keying & Wu, Meng & Sun, Yongping & Shi, Xunpeng & Sun, Ao & Zhang, Ping, 2019. "Resource abundance, industrial structure, and regional carbon emissions efficiency in China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 203-214.
    17. Tingting Yang & Xuefeng Guan & Yuehui Qian & Weiran Xing & Huayi Wu, 2019. "Efficiency Evaluation of Urban Road Transport and Land Use in Hunan Province of China Based on Hybrid Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-18, July.
    18. Bing Xia & Suocheng Dong & Duoxun Ba & Yu Li & Fujia Li & Haimeng Liu & Zehong Li & Minyan Zhao, 2018. "Research on the Spatial Differentiation and Driving Factors of Tourism Enterprises’ Efficiency: Chinese Scenic Spots, Travel Agencies, and Hotels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-22, March.
    19. Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike G., 2019. "A review of research into performance modeling in tourism research - Launching the Annals of Tourism Research curated collection on performance modeling in tourism research," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 266-277.
    20. Calogero Guccio & Domenico Lisi & Marco Martorana & Anna Mignosa, 2017. "On the role of cultural participation in tourism destination performance: an assessment using robust conditional efficiency approach," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(2), pages 129-154, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cuccia, Tiziana & Guccio, Calogero & Rizzo, Ilde, 2016. "The effects of UNESCO World Heritage List inscription on tourism destinations performance in Italian regions," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 494-508.
    2. Calogero Guccio & Domenico Lisi & Marco Martorana & Anna Mignosa, 2017. "On the role of cultural participation in tourism destination performance: an assessment using robust conditional efficiency approach," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(2), pages 129-154, May.
    3. Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2013. "Does Unesco inscription affect the performance of tourism destinations? A regional perspective," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-04-2013, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Oct 2013.
    4. Guccio, Calogero & Mazza, Isidoro & Mignosa, Anna & Rizzo, Ilde, 2018. "A round trip on decentralization in the tourism sector," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 140-155.
    5. Calogero Guccio & Marco Ferdinando Martorana & Luisa Monaco, 2016. "Evaluating the impact of the Bologna Process on the efficiency convergence of Italian universities: a non-parametric frontier approach," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 275-298, June.
    6. Calogero Guccio & Marco Martorana & Isidoro Mazza & Ilde Rizzo, 2021. "Back to the Future: Does the use of information and communication technology enhance the performance of public historical archives?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 45(1), pages 13-43, March.
    7. Bernardina Algieri & Antonio à lvarez, 2023. "Assessing the ability of regions to attract foreign tourists: The case of Italy," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(3), pages 788-811, May.
    8. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min, 2016. "Research fronts in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 33-45.
    9. Massimo Finocchiaro Castro & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2014. "An assessment of the waste effects of corruption on infrastructure provision," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(4), pages 813-843, August.
    10. Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike, 2018. "The estimation and decomposition of tourism productivity," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 131-142.
    11. Léopold Simar & Paul W. Wilson, 2015. "Statistical Approaches for Non-parametric Frontier Models: A Guided Tour," International Statistical Review, International Statistical Institute, vol. 83(1), pages 77-110, April.
    12. Calogero Guccio & Giacomo Pignataro & Ilde Rizzo, 2014. "Evaluating the efficiency of public procurement contracts for cultural heritage conservation works in Italy," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 38(1), pages 43-70, February.
    13. Dana PANCUROVA & Stefan LYOCSA, 2013. "Determinants of Commercial Banks’ Efficiency: Evidence from 11 CEE Countries," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 63(2), pages 152-179, May.
    14. Calogero Guccio & Marco Martorana & Isidoro Mazza & Ilde Rizzo, 2016. "Back to the Future. The effect of digital technology on the performance of public historical archives," ACEI Working Paper Series AWP-10-2016, Association for Cultural Economics International, revised Sep 2016.
    15. Luis César Herrero-Prieto & Mafalda Gómez-Vega, 2017. "Cultural resources as a factor in cultural tourism attraction," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 260-280, March.
    16. Elina Simone & Rosaria Rita Canale & Amedeo Maio, 2019. "Do UNESCO World Heritage Sites Influence International Tourist Arrivals? Evidence from Italian Provincial Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 345-359, November.
    17. Yu-Xia Lin & Ming-Hsiang Chen & Bi-Shu Lin & Shu-Yin Tseng & Ching-Hui (Joan) Su, 2021. "Nonlinear impact of World Heritage Sites on China’s tourism expansion," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(4), pages 795-819, June.
    18. Zhen Su & Joshua R. Aaron & William C. McDowell & Dan Dan Lu, 2019. "Sustainable Synergies between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: An Efficiency Evaluation Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    19. Valentin Zelenyuk, 2019. "Data Envelopment Analysis and Business Analytics: The Big Data Challenges and Some Solutions," CEPA Working Papers Series WP072019, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    20. Corne, Aurélie & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2020. "On the determinants of tourism performance," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:23:y:2017:i:2:p:316-342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.