Tourism, hospitality, and DEA: Where do we come from and where do we go?

The primary goal of this paper is to present a literature survey on the application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) in tourism and hospitality studies. The secondary goal is to categorize the studies by tourism products and tourism industries according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). The tertiary goal is to identify the gaps and challenges in the field. The paper presents a comprehensive review of 350 tourism-related articles that use DEA methodology and highlights several key issues. The publications were statistically classified by methodological innovation, input-output variables, sources of publications, and several other relevant attributes. The investigation reveals the importance of the DEA methodology in the study of the productivity and efficiency of hospitality and tourism. The results also show a high degree of industrial (hotel sector) and geographical (Europe and Asia) concentration of studies. Cultural aspects, tourism sustainability, as well as the efficiency of tourism destinations, have attracted much interest recently. In addition, the new DEA models are increasingly gaining ground in the literature. Finally, the present review highlights the limitations of existing studies and provides important directions for future research.

Automated summary

The paper conducts a comprehensive review of approximately 350 tourism-related articles that use DEA methodology, highlighting key issues and challenges in the field. The importance of DEA methodology in studying the productivity and efficiency of the hospitality and tourism sector is emphasized, along with the concentration of studies in the hotel sector and in Europe and Asia. Recent interests in cultural aspects, sustainability, and tourism destination efficiency are also discussed, as well as the growing popularity of new DEA models in the literature. Furthermore, the review points out the limitations of existing studies and provides important directions for future research.