A multi-criteria approach to destination benchmarking: A case study of state tourism advertising programs in the United States

This paper introduces Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) for the evaluation of inefficiencies in tourism advertising programs and the identification of optimal comparison partners for benchmarking. The implementation of DEA for benchmarking tourism destinations is demonstrated by assessing state tourism advertising programs in the United States. This evaluation includes information on the advertising budgets of state tourism offices, the allocation of market effort in international and domestic segments, and the number of visitors and expenditures generated in the various destinations. A proximity measure was used as an exogenously fixed input variable in order to reflect differences in domestic market size. Findings include efficiency scores for state tourism offices offering several possibilities for managerial implications. Furthermore, the concept of a virtual reference destination assisting managers to analyze their individual strength and weaknessesis introduced. Finally, a discussion of the potential and limitations of DEA for benchmarking of tourism destinations is provided.