Modelos de evaluación de eficiencia de los destinos turísticos: Los recursos culturales como factor determinante de la competitividad turística

La tesis doctoral se centra en el análisis de la competitividad y eficiencia turística, tomando como unidad de desempeño turístico entidades de carácter territorial, los destinos turísticos. Este planeamiento de proceso productivo territorial parte del marco conceptual expuesto por los autores Crouch y Ritchie (1999; 2003), y posteriormente desarrollado por Cracolici et al. (2008) y Hong (2009), entre otros. Dentro del análisis de desempeño turístico se ha dado una especial importancia a cuantificar el efecto determinante que sobre la competitividad, poseen una serie de factores externos o ambientales. Dentro de lo cual, destaca el interés por observar el efecto que la acumulación de recursos culturales genera sobre la eficiencia o competitividad turística.Departamento de Economía AplicadaDoctorado en Economí

Does the accumulation of creative capital influence the competitiveness of the tourism sector in European regions?

Producción CientíficaRecently, more countries have implemented policies aimed at enhancing the synergy between two strategic sectors: tourism and the creative industries. This article assesses this relationship for a sample of European regions (171 regions). Our main contribution lies in assessing how the accumulation of resources linked to the cultural and creative sectors helps to maximize tourism competitiveness—measured by means of an efficiency model. From a methodological point of view, we apply a two-stage model. First, we construct a tourism efficiency indicator and five synthetic indicators of creativity by means of data envelopment analysis. Secondly, we test the influence of the accumulation of creative industries on regions’ tourism competitiveness by means of a regression analysis. The results can be used to draw conclusions which are applicable in the field of management so that destinations can find competitive advantages for their tourism sector and thus enhance their cultural and creative capita

Deep‑Rooted Culture and Economic Development: Taking the Seven Deadly Sins to Build a Well‑Being Composite Indicator

Producción CientíficaThis work involves undertaking a reappraisal of the Seven Deadly Sins in order to construct synthetic indicators of well-being aimed at measuring spatial economic disparities and their link to economic development. The Seven Deadly Sins constitute a way of describing vices vis-à-vis Christian moral education. Yet they might also be viewed as general norms of social behaviour and interpreted today as notions related to the concept of well-being. For example, the level of concentration of wealth (greed), sustainability of resources (gluttony), safety index (wrath), problems adapting to the labour market or workplace absenteeism (sloth), etc. The Seven Deadly Sins have also yielded emblematic examples of artistic iconography and cultural production. How they are perceived and expressed may also differ depending on each group’s cultural idiosyncrasy, in the sense of a series of beliefs and attitudes forged over the centuries. Based on these premises, the current work first seeks to compile variables that reflect each conceptual dimension so as to later construct a synthetic indicator of well-being with territorial disaggregation. This enables us to explore spatial disparities and the extent to which they relate to economic development. This is applied to a group of countries in the European Union with NUTS 2 territorial disaggregation (regions). The sources of information are basically Eurostat. The method involves applying Data Envelopment Analysis to construct the synthetic indicator, and spatial econometrics to pinpoint spatial dependence effects

Performance of cultural heritage institutions: A regional perspective

Producción CientíficaMost studies on performance evaluation in the cultural sector are based on the efficiency assessment of a network of institutions. Nevertheless, very few works take territorial divisions as the case study. Under this approach, we design a spatial production function which merges several cultural resources in order to optimize the impact of a regional system of cultural institutions in terms of cultural production and use of services provided. The aim of this paper is therefore to evaluate the efficiency of cultural heritage institutions in Spain from a regional perspective. We take regional networks of museums and libraries as emblematic case studies over a long period, from 2002 to 2020. We first apply a dynamic-network DEA model to measure efficiency, which allows the production function to be divided into stages and time intervals, considering inter-reliant inputs between production phases and time lapses. We also apply truncated regression models to study the effect of external variables on regional cultural efficiency, especially those related to socioeconomic conditions in regions, the scope of the cultural and tourist sector, and institutional indicators. Results show that regional cultural efficiency depends on the level of training and on the demographic structure rather than on economic wealth. Differences are also found between the goals of cultural production and cultural consumption (visitor impact). These findings might prove useful for policy implications regarding resource allocation vis-à-vis defining and accomplishing cultural purposes at a regional scale, and also for revealing causes of inefficiency with a view to improving quality in institutions –which ultimately drives economic development

Urban public libraries: Performance analysis using dynamic-network-DEA

The aim of this work is to posit a model to evaluate the efficiency of a system of urban public libraries and to examine the impact of certain contextual variables on the level of performance. We take the System of Public Libraries in the city of Medellin (Colombia) as a case study and consider a production function which displays three main characteristics. First, it is a complete production function which spans the different activities undertaken by these institutions, not only the one that identifies it with its function as a repository of knowledge. Second, there is the production function in stages, which allows us to distinguish between the various activities controlled by management from those coproduced with users, together with the link between the two. The third is a production function which takes into account temporal interdependence relations by identifying quasi-fixed inputs that remain for the provision of the service over time. This then allows us to analyse how efficiency evolves during the period in question. Efficiency evaluation is carried out by employing a dynamic-network-DEA model and we also apply truncated bootstrap regression to estimate the effect of certain contextual variables on library efficiency. The results evidence a growing trend in the efficiency indices, with values that are slightly more favourable in the second stage of service provision than in the stage focusing on managing the cultural programme. Factors such as the level of education, population density, youthfulness, and safety are seen to positively affect library performance, particularly in the second stage vis-à-vis the public.Este trabajo forma parte del proyecto de investigación de la Junta de Castilla VA012G1

Clustering and country destination performance at a global scale: Determining factors of tourism competitiveness

Our aim is to evaluate the efficiency of tourist destinations at a global scale, considering 140 countries and drawing on World Economic Forum 2019 data. The approach follows three stages. First, we try to solve the problem of sample heterogeneity through cluster analysis to obtain homogeneous groups of countries. Second, we apply data envelopment analysis to evaluate countries’ efficiency as tourist destinations, considering a territorially based virtual production function which optimizes the flow of revenue from international tourism grounded on a set of inputs such as accommodation capacity, employment of tourist sector and volume of tourist arrivals. Finally, we identify which external factors might determine tourism efficiency by using bootstrap truncated regression analysis. We obtain two groups of countries which evidence differential levels of competitiveness. Rather than natural resources, cultural heritage in a broad sense seems to act as factor that enhances tourism efficiency.Regional Ministry of Education at the Regional Government of Castile and Leon (project no. VA012G19

Determinantes de la eficiencia en la captación de turismo cultural nacional y extranjero en España: Un análisis regional

Planteamos un estudio fundamentado en la metodología de evaluación de la eficiencia en dos etapas sobre destinos turísticos, con una aplicación a las regiones españolas y considerando el flujo específico de turistas culturales como principal output a maximizar. El objetivo es contrastar si la concentración de recursos culturales favorece la eficiencia de los destinos turísticos en la atracción de turistas y examinar las posibilidades de intervención y ajuste en este campo. Consideramos dos modelos de estudio según el origen del flujo de turistas, nacionales e internacionales. La metodología consta de un procedimiento en dos etapas, en primer lugar se estiman los ratios de eficiencia por medio de métodos no paramétricos, y posteriormente contrastamos cómo estos ratios pueden verse condicionados por una serie de variables externas de tipo dotacional y cultural, a través de un análisis de regresión.We posit a study based on the two-step efficiency evaluation method for tourist destinations, applied to Spanish regions and taking into account the specific flow of cultural tourists as the principal output to be maximised. The aim is to ascertain whether the concentration of cultural resources favours the efficiency of tourist destinations when attracting tourists and to explore the possibilities of intervention and adjustment in this field. We put forward two study models depending on whether the origin of the tourist flow is domestic or international. The method consists of a two-step procedure. First, the efficiency ratios are estimated by means of non-parametric methods. We then examine how these ratios might be shaped by a series of endowment and cultural type external variables, applying regression analysis