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Benchmarking International Tourism Destinations

Author

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  • A. George Assaf

    (Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts–Amherst, 90 Campus Center Way, 209 A Flint Lab, MA 01003, USA)

  • Larry Dwyer

    (Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia)

Abstract

Industry productivity growth measures the contribution to the growth of the economy that an industry delivers. Benchmarking international tourism destinations in respect of their productivity is often avoided due to the difference in tourism characteristics between destinations. This paper introduces a novel approach to destination benchmarking that is theoretically motivated to account for this problem. The benchmarking framework proposed uses separate groups of countries with similar characteristics to construct a metafrontier that envelops these groups, and as such represents the world tourism industry. The paper confirms that ignoring heterogeneity (that is, differences in destination characteristics) can lead to bias in the productivity rankings of different countries. The results show that North American and European countries lead the world tourism industry in terms of productivity growth, while African countries lag behind. On average, most African countries are also not catching up with the world tourism industry. The outcome is development of a robust and comprehensive benchmarking methodology that can provide governments and national tourism offices with an accurate assessment of their international tourism performance.

Suggested Citation

  • A. George Assaf & Larry Dwyer, 2013. "Benchmarking International Tourism Destinations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 1233-1247, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:19:y:2013:i:6:p:1233-1247
    DOI: 10.5367/te.2013.0354
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Han-Shen Chen & Bi-Kun Tsai & Gwo-Bao Liou & Chi-Ming Hsieh, 2018. "Efficiency Assessment of Inbound Tourist Service Using Data Envelopment Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Gore, Surabhi & Borde, Nilesh & Desai, Purva Hegde & George, Babu, 2022. "A Structured Literature Review of the Tourism Area Life Cycle Concept," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 10(1), pages 1-20.
    3. Rio Benedicto Bire, 2021. "Mapping destination competitiveness in Indonesia’s Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT) province: A Malmquist–data envelopment analysis approach," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(3), pages 820-834, June.
    4. Fernandes, Vicente Aprigliano & Pacheco, Ricardo Rodrigues & Fernandes, Elton, 2022. "A dynamic analysis of air transport and tourism in Brazil," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    5. 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.
    6. Aurélie Corne & Olga Goncalves & Nicolas Peypoch, 2020. "Evaluating the performance drivers of French ski resorts: A hierarchical approach," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(3), pages 389-405, April.
    7. Liu, Anyu & Wu, Doris Chenguang, 2019. "Tourism productivity and economic growth," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 253-265.
    8. Federico Inchausti-Sintes & Ubay Pérez-Granja & José Juan Morales-Mohamed, 2021. "Analysing labour productivity and its economic consequences in the two Spanish tourist archipelagos," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(5), pages 1039-1059, August.
    9. Silvia Emili & Federica Galli, 2023. "Spatial and cross-sectoral input spillover effects: the case of the Italian tourism industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 243-258, June.
    10. Yasuo Ohe & Nicolas Peypoch, 2016. "Efficiency analysis of Japanese Ryokans," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(6), pages 1261-1273, December.
    11. Zhiliang Liu & Chengpeng Lu & Jinhuang Mao & Dongqi Sun & Hengji Li & Chenyu Lu, 2021. "Spatial–Temporal Heterogeneity and the Related Influencing Factors of Tourism Efficiency in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-19, 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. José Alberto Martínez-González & Vidina Tais Díaz-Padilla & Eduardo Parra-López, 2021. "Study of the Tourism Competitiveness Model of the World Economic Forum Using Rasch’s Mathematical Model: The Case of Portugal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-20, June.
    14. Larry Dwyer, 2022. "Productivity, Destination Performance, and Stakeholder Well-Being," Tourism and Hospitality, MDPI, vol. 3(3), pages 1-16, July.
    15. Uysal, Muzaffer & Sirgy, M. Joseph, 2019. "Quality-of-life indicators as performance measures," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 291-300.
    16. Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike, 2018. "The estimation and decomposition of tourism productivity," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 131-142.
    17. Croes, Robertico & Ridderstaat, Jorge & Shapoval, Valeriya, 2020. "Extending tourism competitiveness to human development," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).

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