Efficiency and sustainability of the tourism industry in Latin America

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2024.100178

Abstract

Abstract:

The tourism industry is economically very important. According to the World Travel Tourism Council, in 2019, the tourism industry accounted for a quarter of all new jobs created worldwide, 10.3% of all jobs, and 9.6×10¹² USD of the global gross domestic product. This study aimed to calculate the tourism efficiency index for different Latin American countries from 2010 to 2021 using data envelopment analysis, which analyzes the relationships between input variables (including the number of employees in the tourism industry and the number of hotel-type establishments) and output variables (including tourism expenditures in other countries and public social expenditures in recreation and culture per capita). Additionally, this study aimed to identify the countries with greater tourism development and the factors that may affect the development of the tourism industry through the stochastic frontier production function. The results of the tourism efficiency index for Central America (including Costa Rica, Dominica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, and Panama) and South America (including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay) exhibited different trends. However, after the global health crisis, the tourism industry recovered, showing new opportunities to promote sustainability. The results of the stochastic frontier production function demonstrated that countries with higher levels of inbound and outbound tourism, contribution of tourism to the economy, natural resources, and literacy rate exhibited more efficient tourism industry, whereas countries with higher pollution levels exhibited less efficient tourism industry. The findings of this study could allow us to formulate suitable public policies to promote tourism, maintain natural resources, and diversify these sectors with more inclusive programmes that can facilitate growth and benefit vulnerable communities.

Key words: Tourism industry, Tourism efficiency index, Stochastic frontier production function, Data envelopment analysis (DEA), Latin America

Clara Inés PARDO MARTÍNEZ, Alexander COTTE POVEDA. Efficiency and sustainability of the tourism industry in Latin America[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2024, 5(4): 100178.

Figures/Tables 5

Table 1

Table 2

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Table 3

Results of regression models with the tourism efficiency index as the dependent variable."

Parameter	Model 1	Model 2	Model 3	Model 4	Model 5	Model 6	Model 7	Model 8	Model 9	Model 10	Model 11	Model 12	Model 13	Model 14
Constant	-0.590^** (0.276)	-1.093^*** (0.277)	0.048 (0.228)	0.966^*** (0.328)	-2.418^*** (0.423)	-2.833^*** (0.551)	-3.292^*** (0.413)	-3.766^*** (0.629)	-3.119^*** (0.583)	-3.559^*** (0.525)	-5.098^*** (1.038)	-3.298^*** (0.635)	-2.654^** (1.079)	-5.002^*** (1.265)
Inbound tourism	0.005 (0.012)	0.002^*** (0.000)	0.012 (0.012)	0.117^*** (0.552)	0.035^*** (0.007)	0.034^*** (0.007)	0.014^* (0.008)	0.011 (0.008)	0.004 (0.008)	0.003 (0.008)	0.001 (0.007)	0.003 (0.008)	0.003 (0.008)	0.002 (0.010)
Outbound tourism	0.181^*** (0.022)	0.406^*** (0.041)	0.148^*** (0.024)	0.243^*** (0.029)	0.197^*** (0.017)	0.142^*** (0.027)	0.217^*** (0.030)	0.215^*** (0.029)	0.190^*** (0.049)	0.173^*** (0.052)	0.137^*** (0.032)	0.169^*** (0.033)	0.160^*** (0.032)	0.139^*** (0.034)
Contribution of tourism to the economy	0.074^* (0.038)	0.292^*** (0.051)	0.120^** (0.039)	0.115^*** (0.035)	0.115^*** (0.030)	0.175^*** (0.035)	0.124^*** (0.037)	0.135^*** (0.038)	0.075 (0.052)	0.064 (0.052)	0.066^* (0.049)	0.081^* (0.050)	0.090^** (0.050)	0.064 (0.050)
Mangroves area		0.069^*** (0.019)	0.000^** (0.000)	0.052^*** (0.014)	0.000^*** (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000^* (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)	0.000 (0.000)
Terrestrial biodiversity			0.006^*** (0.001)	0.926^*** (0.079)	0.016^*** (0.001)	0.018^*** (0.001)	0.015^*** (0.001)	0.017^*** (0.001)	0.016^*** (0.002)	0.016^*** (0.002)	0.017^*** (0.002)	0.016^*** (0.002)	0.016^*** (0.003)	0.017^*** (0.002)
Marine biodiversity				0.229^*** (0.054)	0.321^*** (0.039)	0.240^*** (0.049)	0.191^*** (0.048)	0.215^*** (0.052)	0.296^*** (0.056)	0.318^*** (0.060)	0.243^*** (0.059)	0.291^*** (0.056)	0.307^*** (0.061)	0.238^*** (0.062)
Freshwater biodiversity					0.279^*** (0.048)	0.472^*** (0.099)	0.423^*** (0.074)	0.497^*** (0.102)	0.383^*** (0.104)	0.464^** (0.109)	0.603^*** (0.134)	0.439^*** (0.114)	0.352^* (0.220)	0.577^*** (0.194)
Forest area						0.078^** (0.031)	0.029 (0.026)	0.049 (0.032)	0.050 (0.052)	0.068 (0.055)	0.105^** (0.041)	0.075^* (0.040)	0.065 (0.074)	0.093^* (0.064)
Land area covered by forests							0.151^*** (0.038)	0.160^*** (0.037)	0.057 (0.071)	0.032 (0.075)
Area of forest plantations								0.028 (0.028)	0.029 (0.034)	0.075^* (0.047)	0.032 (0.029)	0.016 (0.038)	0.026 (0.091)	0.014 (0.083)
GHG emissions per capita									-0.158^* (0.085)		-0.264^*** (0.047)	-0.211^*** (0.044)	-0.215^*** (0.046)	-0.263^*** (0.060)
CO₂ emissions per capita										-0.161^** (0.076)
Literacy rate											0.016^** (0.007)			0.017^** (0.007)
Public social expenditure in education												0.038 (0.036)
Public social expenditure in health													0.013 (0.075)	0.000 (0.000)
Public social expenditure in environmental protection														0.001 (0.025)
σ_v	0.214	0.121	0.180	0.083	0.073	0.053	0.068	0.066	0.068	0.068	0.068	0.068	0.068	0.066
σ_u	0.002	0.001	0.059	0.001	0.108	0.132	0.090	0.093	0.001	0.000	0.001	0.001	0.000	0.000
σ²	0.046	0.014	0.036	0.007	0.017	0.020	0.012	0.013	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.004	0.004
λ	0.011	0.015	0.331	0.018	1.476	2.473	1.318	1.409	0.016	0.100	0.014	0.014	0.012	0.013
Log likelihood	11.07	37.16	25.14	56.25	78.08	82.21	88.45	88.97	99.55	100.00	99.80	99.800	99.245	100.30

Table 3

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Variable	Definition	Source
Employment in the tourism industry (10³ persons)	Number of employees in the tourism industry	UNWTO
Establishments in the tourism industry	Number of hotel-type establishments	UNWTO
Tourism expenditure (10⁶ USD)	Tourism expenditure in other countries	UNWTO
Public social expenditure (USD per capita)	Public social expenditure in recreation and culture per capita	ECLAC
Inbound tourism (10³ persons)	Total arrivals	UNWTO
Outbound tourism (10³ persons)	Total departures	UNWTO
Contribution of tourism to the economy (%)	Share of tourism in the GDP	UNWTO
Mangroves area (10³ hm²)		ECLAC
Terrestrial biodiversity (%)	Proportion of terrestrial biodiversity sites covered by protected areas	ECLAC
Marine biodiversity (%)	Proportion of marine biodiversity sites covered by protected areas	ECLAC
Freshwater biodiversity (%)	Proportion of freshwater biodiversity sites covered by protected areas	ECLAC
Forest area (10³ hm²)		ECLAC
Percentage of land area covered by forests (%)		ECLAC
Area of forest plantations (%)	Area of forest plantations expressed as a percentage	ECLAC
GHG emissions per capita (t CO₂e per capita)		ECLAC
CO₂ emissions per capita (t per capita)		ECLAC
Literacy rate (%)	Literacy rate of people ages 15 years old and over	ECLAC
Public social expenditure in education (USD per capita)		ECLAC
Public social expenditure in health (USD per capita)		ECLAC
Public social expenditure in environmental protection (USD per capita)		ECLAC