A pre-pandemic Data Envelopment Analysis of the sustainability efficiency of tourism in EU-27 countries

This paper evaluates the sustainability efficiency of tourism across 27 countries in the European Union for the years 2015-2019. The proposed approach is based on the data analysis envelopment (DEA) methodology and uses different economic, social and environmental indicators. A non-oriented, slacks-based inefficiency (SBI) model is proposed. Efficiency scores and targets for each country in each year are computed and discussed. Given the relatively large number of countries labelled relative efficient, a Super-SBI approach is used to rank the efficient countries. A discussion of the results of this study and a comparison with the efficiency results given in recent related works is presented. The analysis provides valuable information, such as identifying the countries with the best tourism sustainability practices, for the challenging task of rebuilding the sector and retaking the observed pre-pandemic trend of increasing tourism sustainability.