Using a Two-Stage DEA Model to Measure Tourism Potentials of EU Countries and Western Balkan Countries: An Approach to Sustainable Development

Boris Radovanov, Branislav Dudic, Michal Gregus, Aleksandra Marcikic Horvat and Vincent Karovic
Additional contact information
Boris Radovanov: Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Economics, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, 24000 Subotica, Serbia
Branislav Dudic: Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
Michal Gregus: Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia
Aleksandra Marcikic Horvat: Department of Business Informatics and Quantitative Economics, Faculty of Economics in Subotica, University of Novi Sad, 24000 Subotica, Serbia
Vincent Karovic: Faculty of Management, Comenius University in Bratislava, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-12

Abstract: The concept of sustainable tourism development is imposed as an inevitable way of improving the tourism industry as a whole. This study tries to offer an adequate inclusion of sustainable factors in overall tourism development efficiency results. Through the detection and estimation of potential sources of efficiency, the paper will do the efficiency benchmarking of tourism services on the level of countries as destinations. In order to complete the task, data collection was focused on 27 EU countries and five Western Balkan countries over the period from 2011 to 2017. This paper utilized an output-oriented data envelopment analysis (DEA) procedure to estimate efficiency scores for each country, and a panel data Tobit regression model to emphasize the (in)significance of each individual tourism development indicator. The results in the first stage show relatively high-efficiency scores, particularly in the case of EU 15 countries and with room for improvement in the case of the others. The second stage reveals positive and significant effects on relative tourism efficiency by the sustainability of tourism development, the share of GDP, tourist arrivals and inbound receipts, as well as visa requirements and rate of use. Policymakers should gradually take control of the mentioned variables to protect the interests of all relevant stakeholders involved in the tourism development process.

Keywords: sustainable tourism development; data envelopment analysis; tobit regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4903/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/12/4903/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:12:p:4903-:d:372116

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().