IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/toueco/v28y2022i4p1080-1100.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving destination competitiveness in South Africa: A DEA approach

Author

Listed:
  • Alicia Fourie

    (56405North-West UniversityNorth-West University, South Africa)

  • Chris van Heerden

    (56405North-West UniversityNorth-West University, South Africa)

  • Engelina du Plessis

    (56405North-West University, South Africa)

Abstract

The notion to travel to a tourist destination is often based on competitiveness aspects. The efficiency of these target markets is, however, not clear, and this article will determine the efficiency of tourists visiting South Africa, which will be categorised according to demographic aspects in relation to cost and competitiveness. Empirical evidence by means of the data envelopment analysis model found that South Africa is currently facing poor price competitiveness in different markets from tourists across different demographic backdrops. Results indicated that age, gender, time spent and continent of origin cause tourists to perceive South Africa as a price competitive tourist destination, differently. Being able to determine these efficiencies for different demographical markets, destination marketing officers will be able to use competitiveness and cost attributes as indicators to which markets will respond. Tourism councils must ensure that the correct information reaches visitors through advertising and marketing campaigns, as visitors’ expectations must be managed to improve the perceived price competitiveness of South Africa’s tourism industry. The findings have clear implications for DMOs’ managers regarding the designed marketing campaigns for South Africa as a tourist destination, especially for segments under investigation in this study.

Suggested Citation

  • Alicia Fourie & Chris van Heerden & Engelina du Plessis, 2022. "Improving destination competitiveness in South Africa: A DEA approach," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(4), pages 1080-1100, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:28:y:2022:i:4:p:1080-1100
    DOI: 10.1177/13548166211009987
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13548166211009987
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/13548166211009987?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohd Hafiz Hanafiah & Mohamad Abdullah Hemdi & Ismail Ahmad, 2016. "Tourism destination competitiveness," Tourism Economics, , vol. 22(3), pages 629-636, June.
    2. Mohammad Hanif Akhtar, 2002. "X-efficiency Analysis of Commercial Banks in Pakistan: A Preliminary Investigation," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 41(4), pages 567-580.
    3. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Botti, Laurent & Peypoch, Nicolas & Robinot, Elisabeth & Solonandrasana, Bernardin & A., George Assaf, 2011. "Performance of French destinations: Tourism attraction perspectives," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 141-146.
    4. Lee, Sangjae & Jeon, Sungil & Kim, Doyoung, 2011. "The impact of tour quality and tourist satisfaction on tourist loyalty: The case of Chinese tourists in Korea," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1115-1124.
    5. Maria Francesca Cracolici & Peter Nijkamp & Piet Rietveld, 2008. "Assessment of Tourism Competitiveness by Analysing Destination Efficiency," Tourism Economics, , vol. 14(2), pages 325-342, June.
    6. Robertico Croes & Manuel Antonio Rivera, 2010. "Testing the Empirical Link between Tourism and Competitiveness: Evidence from Puerto Rico," Tourism Economics, , vol. 16(1), pages 217-234, March.
    7. Loretta J. Mester, "undated". "Efficiency of Banks in the Third Federal Reserve District," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 2-94, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    8. Nguyen, Quang, 2016. "Linking loss aversion and present bias with overspending behavior of tourists: Insights from a lab-in-the-field experiment," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 152-159.
    9. Liu, John S. & Lu, Louis Y.Y. & Lu, Wen-Min & Lin, Bruce J.Y., 2013. "A survey of DEA applications," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 893-902.
    10. Maria Francesca Cracolici & Peter Nijkamp & Miranda Cuffaro, 2007. "Efficiency and Productivity of Italian Tourist Destinations: A Quantitative Estimation Based on Data Envelopment Analysis and the Malmquist Method," Springer Books, in: Álvaro Matias & Peter Nijkamp & Paulo Neto (ed.), Advances in Modern Tourism Research, chapter 0, pages 325-343, Springer.
    11. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    12. Barros, Carlos Pestana & Butler, Richard & Correia, Antónia, 2010. "The length of stay of golf tourism: A survival analysis," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 13-21.
    13. Nishaal Gooroochurn & Guntur Sugiyarto, 2005. "Competitiveness Indicators in the Travel and Tourism Industry," Tourism Economics, , vol. 11(1), pages 25-43, March.
    14. Irma Booyens, 2010. "Rethinking township tourism: Towards responsible tourism development in South African townships," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(2), pages 273-287.
    15. Chris van Heerden & Melville Saayman, 2018. "Sustainability of a national arts festival," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(5), pages 576-592, August.
    16. Kittelsen,S.A.C., 1999. "Monte Carlo simulations of DEA efficiency measures and hypothesis tests," Memorandum 09/1999, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    17. Jaforullah, Mohammad & Whiteman, John, 1999. "Scale efficiency in the New Zealand dairy industry: a non-parametric approach," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 43(4), pages 1-19, December.
    18. R. D. Banker & A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1984. "Some Models for Estimating Technical and Scale Inefficiencies in Data Envelopment Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(9), pages 1078-1092, September.
    19. Sathye, Milind, 2001. "X-efficiency in Australian banking: An empirical investigation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 613-630, March.
    20. R Balkaran S, 2013. "The application of the theory of Visitor Attractions and its impact on the competitive advantage of the Tourism Sector in Durban, South Africa," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 5(8), pages 546-552.
    21. B. Golany & J. E. Storbeck, 1999. "A Data Envelopment Analysis of the Operational Efficiency of Bank Branches," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 14-26, June.
    22. Muniz, M. A., 2002. "Separating managerial inefficiency and external conditions in data envelopment analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 625-643, December.
    23. Leibenstein, Harvey, 1977. "X-Efficiency, Technical Efficiency, and Incomplete Information Use: A Comment," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 25(2), pages 311-316, January.
    24. Ang, Sheng & Chen, Chien-Ming, 2016. "Pitfalls of decomposition weights in the additive multi-stage DEA model," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 139-153.
    25. Álvaro Matias & Peter Nijkamp & Paulo Neto (ed.), 2007. "Advances in Modern Tourism Research," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-7908-1718-8, June.
    26. William W. Cooper & Lawrence M. Seiford & Kaoru Tone, 2007. "Data Envelopment Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-0-387-45283-8, June.
    27. Mohammed I. Eraqi, 2009. "Integrated quality management and sustainability for enhancing the competitiveness of tourism in Egypt," International Journal of Services and Operations Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(1), pages 14-28.
    28. Rajiv D. Banker, 1993. "Maximum Likelihood, Consistency and Data Envelopment Analysis: A Statistical Foundation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(10), pages 1265-1273, October.
    29. Alain Dupeyras & Neil MacCallum, 2013. "Indicators for Measuring Competitiveness in Tourism: A Guidance Document," OECD Tourism Papers 2013/2, OECD Publishing.
    30. Li, Xiangping & Li, Xiang (Robert) & Hudson, Simon, 2013. "The application of generational theory to tourism consumer behavior: An American perspective," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 147-164.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shengrui Zhang & Lei Chi & Tongyan Zhang & Yingjie Wang, 2023. "Optimization of Tourism Management Based on Regional Tourism Competitiveness Evaluation: Evidence from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chris van Heerden & Melville Saayman, 2018. "Sustainability of a national arts festival," Tourism Economics, , vol. 24(5), pages 576-592, August.
    2. Calogero Guccio & Domenico Lisi & Marco Martorana & Anna Mignosa, 2017. "On the role of cultural participation in tourism destination performance: an assessment using robust conditional efficiency approach," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(2), pages 129-154, May.
    3. Tiziana Cuccia & Calogero Guccio & Ilde Rizzo, 2017. "UNESCO sites and performance trend of Italian regional tourism destinations," Tourism Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 316-342, March.
    4. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2015. "Efficiency of the banking system in Vietnam under financial liberalization," OSF Preprints qsf6d, Center for Open Science.
    5. Sepideh Kaffash & Marianna Marra, 2017. "Data envelopment analysis in financial services: a citations network analysis of banks, insurance companies and money market funds," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 253(1), pages 307-344, June.
    6. Vincent Charles & Ioannis E. Tsolas & Tatiana Gherman, 2018. "Satisficing data envelopment analysis: a Bayesian approach for peer mining in the banking sector," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 269(1), pages 81-102, October.
    7. Alperovych, Yan & Hübner, Georges & Lobet, Fabrice, 2015. "How does governmental versus private venture capital backing affect a firm's efficiency? Evidence from Belgium," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 508-525.
    8. Paulo H A Feitosa & Amanda B A Silva, 2022. "Length of stay and satisfaction shaping the competitiveness of international business tourism in São Paulo city, Brazil," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(3), pages 728-747, May.
    9. Nadia M. Guerrero & Juan Aparicio & Daniel Valero-Carreras, 2022. "Combining Data Envelopment Analysis and Machine Learning," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, March.
    10. Zervopoulos, Panagiotis & Emrouznejad, Ali & Sklavos, Sokratis, 2019. "A Bayesian approach for correcting bias of data envelopment analysis estimators," MPRA Paper 91886, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Banker, Rajiv D. & Chang, Hsihui & Lee, Seok-Young, 2010. "Differential impact of Korean banking system reforms on bank productivity," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1450-1460, July.
    12. Kaffash, Sepideh & Azizi, Roza & Huang, Ying & Zhu, Joe, 2020. "A survey of data envelopment analysis applications in the insurance industry 1993–2018," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 284(3), pages 801-813.
    13. Zhen Su & Joshua R. Aaron & William C. McDowell & Dan Dan Lu, 2019. "Sustainable Synergies between the Cultural and Tourism Industries: An Efficiency Evaluation Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-20, November.
    14. Juan Carlos Martin, 2017. "Regional Spanish Tourism Competitiveness. A DEA-MONITUR approach," REGION, European Regional Science Association, vol. 4, pages 153-173.
    15. Paradi, Joseph C. & Rouatt, Stephen & Zhu, Haiyan, 2011. "Two-stage evaluation of bank branch efficiency using data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 99-109, January.
    16. Esteve, Miriam & Aparicio, Juan & Rodriguez-Sala, Jesus J. & Zhu, Joe, 2023. "Random Forests and the measurement of super-efficiency in the context of Free Disposal Hull," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 304(2), pages 729-744.
    17. Chang, Hsihui & Choy, Hiu Lam & Cooper, William W. & Parker, Barnett R. & Ruefli, Timothy W., 2009. "Measuring productivity growth, technical progress, and efficiency changes of CPA firms prior to, and following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 221-228, December.
    18. Kittelsen, Sverre A.C. & Magnussen, Jon, 2009. "Testing DEA Models of Efficiency in Norwegian Psychiatric Outpatient Clinics," HERO Online Working Paper Series 1999:4, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    19. Assaf, A. George & Tsionas, Mike, 2018. "The estimation and decomposition of tourism productivity," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 131-142.
    20. Chiang Kao & Shiang-Tai Liu, 2022. "Stochastic efficiencies of network production systems with correlated stochastic data: the case of Taiwanese commercial banks," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 315(2), pages 1151-1174, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:28:y:2022:i:4:p:1080-1100. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.