Tourism sustainability and competitiveness: insights from European countries

Purpose
This study aims to explore and deepen the sustainability and resilience links to the discussion of tourism competitiveness.

Design/methodology/approach
Tourism sustainability of 21 European countries is measured and benchmarked by employing an interactive data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The variables used in the DEA modeling reflect economic, environmental and social dimensions of tourism, and incorporate domains as diverse as attractions, capacities, pressure, regional dispersion, seasonality and tourism growth.

Findings
The results of the interactive DEA are robust with minor, albeit expected variations when it comes to the benchmarking results in particular, which signals the importance of interactive over static modeling. A certain degree of geographical clustering is also evident in the discussion of most and least inefficient countries.

Originality/value
This study is of timely importance in the contemporary wake of economic recovery and the revival of overtourism (social and environmental) impacts on destinations. The results are valuable for national tourism organizations that strive to make their destinations more resilient and competitive in the long term.