IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jadmsc/v15y2025i3p109-d1615008.html

Analysis of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Hotel Sector Spanish: An Efficiency Study by Regions

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Antonio Giménez Espín

    (Department of Financial Economic and Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain)

  • María Pilar Alberca Oliver

    (Department of Business and Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, National Distance Education University (UNED), Paseo Senda del Rey, 11, 28040 Madrid, Spain)

  • José Manuel Santos-Jaén

    (Department of Financial Economic and Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100 Murcia, Spain)

Abstract

In this paper, the non-parametric frontier methodology (DEA) with input orientation, variable returns to scale, and the Malmquist productivity indices are used to study the level of national and regional efficiency and know the productive change of Spanish hotels in the period 2014–2021, after the health crisis caused by COVID-19. The main objective of this paper is to know if the national and regional efficiency and total productivity of this sector have changed due to this pandemic. The data were extracted from the Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System (SABI) and the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE). The results obtained make it possible to determine which regions are the most efficient (Asturias, Castilla-León, and Cantabria) and to know that changes in productivity have their origin in efficiency. Furthermore, in 2021, after eliminating the restrictions imposed to fight COVID-19, investments made by hotel companies led to great technical progress. Thus, contrary to what one might think, the pandemic did positively affect the productivity of these companies, thanks to great technical progress and better adjustment of their scale. Besides, it is possible that COVID-19 has shifted tourism from regions with large cities to those with more natural areas, so the most efficient regions are those where natural tourism stands out.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Antonio Giménez Espín & María Pilar Alberca Oliver & José Manuel Santos-Jaén, 2025. "Analysis of the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Hotel Sector Spanish: An Efficiency Study by Regions," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-29, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:109-:d:1615008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/3/109/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3387/15/3/109/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jui-Kou Shang & Fei-Ching Wang & Wei-Ting Hung, 2010. "A stochastic DEA study of hotel efficiency," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(19), pages 2505-2518.
    2. Timothy J. Coelli & D.S. Prasada Rao & Christopher J. O’Donnell & George E. Battese, 2005. "An Introduction to Efficiency and Productivity Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-25895-9, March.
    3. Dagnachew Leta Senbeto & Alice H. Y. Hon, 2020. "The impacts of social and economic crises on tourist behaviour and expenditure: an evolutionary approach," Current Issues in Tourism, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 740-755, March.
    4. Haugland, Sven A. & Myrtveit, Ingunn & Nygaard, Arne, 2007. "Market orientation and performance in the service industry: A data envelopment analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(11), pages 1191-1197, November.
    5. Isabel Carrillo-Hidalgo & Juan Ignacio Pulido-Fernández & José Luis Durán-Román & Jairo Casado-Montilla, 2023. "COVID-19 and tourism sector stock price in Spain: medium-term relationship through dynamic regression models," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    6. Paz Rico & Bernardí Cabrer-Borrás, 2020. "Intangible capital and business productivity," Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 3034-3048, January.
    7. Paz Rico & Bernardí Cabrer-Borrás & María Mar Benavides-Espinosa, 2020. "Intangible capital and business productivity in the hotel industry," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 691-707, June.
    8. Mardani, Abbas & Zavadskas, Edmundas Kazimieras & Streimikiene, Dalia & Jusoh, Ahmad & Khoshnoudi, Masoumeh, 2017. "A comprehensive review of data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach in energy efficiency," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1298-1322.
    9. Halkos, George & Petrou, Kleoniki Natalia, 2019. "Treating undesirable outputs in DEA: A critical review," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 97-104.
    10. Fare, Rolf & Shawna Grosskopf & Mary Norris & Zhongyang Zhang, 1994. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 66-83, March.
    11. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, March.
    12. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Norris, Mary, 1997. "Productivity Growth, Technical Progress, and Efficiency Change in Industrialized Countries: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 1040-1043, December.
    13. Pestana Barros, Carlos & Dieke, Peter U.C., 2007. "Performance evaluation of Italian airports: A data envelopment analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 184-191.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ajayi, Victor & Anaya, Karim & Pollitt, Michael, 2022. "Incentive regulation, productivity growth and environmental effects: the case of electricity networks in Great Britain," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    2. Jeremiah Kau Makokoane, 2020. "Evaluating Productivity and Efficiency Contradictions of Metrorail South Africa," International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration, Inovatus Services Ltd., vol. 6(3), pages 7-19, March.
    3. Chung, Rebecca H. & Hadi, Sholih Nugroho, 2025. "Assessment of total factor productivity and methane efficiency of beef cattle producers worldwide," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 226(C).
    4. Mergoni, Anna & Emrouznejad, Ali & De Witte, Kristof, 2025. "Fifty years of Data Envelopment Analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 326(3), pages 389-412.
    5. Franz Haider & Robert Kunst & Franz Wirl, 2021. "Total factor productivity, its components and drivers," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 48(2), pages 283-327, May.
    6. Sufian, Fadzlan, 2011. "Banks total factor productivity change in a developing economy: Does ownership and origins matter?," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 84-98, February.
    7. Yongjie Xue & Zhenhua Qi & Jinling Yan & Dahai Li & Huifeng Zhao & Haijing Zheng, 2024. "Technical Efficiency and Allocative Efficiency of Beef Cattle Fattening in the Content of Digital Economy: An Empirical Study Based on Survey in China," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, June.
    8. Ather Hassan Dar & Somesh Kumar Mathur & Sila Mishra, 2021. "The Efficiency of Indian Banks: A DEA, Malmquist and SFA Analysis with Bad Output," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 19(4), pages 653-701, December.
    9. Vicente J. Bolos & Rafael Benitez & Vicente Coll-Serrano, 2025. "Conventional and Fuzzy Data Envelopment Analysis with deaR," Papers 2506.03766, arXiv.org.
    10. Dirk Beyer & Jana Hinke, 2026. "Long-term trends in economic and environmental efficiency of EU agriculture: A DEA-Malmquist approach," Agricultural Economics, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 72(1), pages 56-67.
    11. Silvia Saravia-Matus & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Sreejith Aravindakshan & Stefan Sieber & Jimmy A. Saravia & Sergio Gomez y Paloma, 2021. "Can Enhancing Efficiency Promote the Economic Viability of Smallholder Farmers? A Case of Sierra Leone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Liying Zheng & Fangjuan Zhan & Fangrong Ren, 2025. "Carbon Dioxide Emission-Reduction Efficiency in China’s New Energy Vehicle Sector Toward Sustainable Development: Evidence from a Three-Stage Super-Slacks Based-Measure Data Envelopment Analysis Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-26, August.
    13. Victor Ajayi & Michael Pollitt, 2022. "Changing times - Incentive regulation, corporate reorganisations, and productivity in Great Britain’s gas networks," Working Papers 023, The Productivity Institute.
    14. Chen, Xiaodong & Miao, Zhuang & Wu, Ge & Zhu, Pengyu, 2024. "City-level green growth accounting: Evidence from China's thirteen urban agglomerations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    15. Helvoigt, Ted L. & Adams, Darius M., 2009. "A stochastic frontier analysis of technical progress, efficiency change and productivity growth in the Pacific Northwest sawmill industry," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 280-287, July.
    16. Mohsen Afsharian & Anna Kryvko & Peter Reichling, 2011. "Efficiency and Its Impact on the Performance of European Commercial Banks," FEMM Working Papers 110018, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Faculty of Economics and Management.
    17. Barnabé Walheer, 2018. "Cost Malmquist productivity index: an output-specific approach for group comparison," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 79-94, February.
    18. Dariush Khezrimotlagh & Sepideh Kaffash, 2025. "Navigating Efficiency: Insights from One-Stage and Two-Stage DEA Modeling in the Airline Industry," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 351(2), pages 1451-1487, August.
    19. Chin‐wei Huang & Hsiao‐Yin Chen, 2023. "Using nonradial metafrontier data envelopment analysis to evaluate the metatechnology and metafactor ratios for the Taiwanese hotel industry," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(4), pages 1904-1919, June.
    20. Nadimi, Reza & Tokimatsu, Koji, 2019. "Potential energy saving via overall efficiency relying on quality of life," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 283-299.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:gam:jadmsc:v:15:y:2025:i:3:p:109-:d:1615008. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.