An Evaluation of Efficiency, Productivity and Sustainability of the Hotel Industry in Tunisia using a Two-stage DEA method

Hotel industry is a very important domain of the tourism industry that is known for its large presence and growth. This service industry does not only consume a huge amount of resources (water, electricity, fuel…) but also intensifies the environmental problems. There have been very little work directed towards sustainability in the hotel industry. An understanding of the situation of the hotel industry and its relationship to sustainability may help improve the performance of this industry while taking into account the economic, social and environmental concerns of sustainability. To investigate the performance of the hotel industry, first, two-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA) method is used to evaluate the efficiency of the hotel industry in the tourist regions of Tunisia for the period 2014-2015. Next, the impact of a number of independent sustainability variables on the efficiency of hotel industry is tested using Tobit regression model. Finally, the Malmquist productivity index is assessed to examine the level of productivity in hotel industry of the tourist regions in Tunisia. The results reveal that the average efficiency of the hotel industry in Tunisia is 66.83% for 2014 and 61.41% for 2015, and the average productivity is 57.18%. The results conclude that sustainability has a positive impact of the efficiency of the hotel industry. The results of this thesis provide understanding on ways to improve the performance of the hotel industry and the sustainable development. Keywords: Bootstrapping, DEA, Efficiency, Hotel industry, Malmquist productivity index, Productivity, Sustainability, Tobit regression model.