Regional spanish tourism competitiveness

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the regional tourist competitiveness performance in Spain. We use the seven pillars of tourism from a very detailed and complete database carried out by the Spanish Government – MoniTUR 2010 as primary data. Thus, we calculate several regional tourist competitiveness indices using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyse the robustness of the results obtained in the ranking of the tourist competitiveness for the 17 Spanish Autonomous Communities. Our results are robust to the use of two different modelling strategies: (1) input and output variables selection; and (2) virtual and super efficiency DEA models. Madrid and La Rioja are found to be the most competitive regions; meanwhile other inland regions of Spain like Extremadura and Aragón are the least competitive. The position of each of the laggard Autonomous Communities should be analysed by their respective destination management organizations (DMOs) in order to envisage adequate corrective measures.