IATE Research Seminar Series
Seminar of the Tourism Economics in Focus: IATE Research Seminar Series, delivered by Prof. Bozana Zekan (Modul University Vienna).
Title: Tourism Sustainability and Competitiveness: Insights from European Countries
Authors: Bozana Zekan and Ulrich Gunter
Abstract:
This study aims to explore and deepen the sustainability and resilience links to the discussion of tourism competitiveness. Specifically, tourism sustainability of 21 European countries is measured and benchmarked by employing an interactive data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach. The input and output variables used in the DEA modeling are the sustainability indicators grounded in the namesake initiatives of the European Travel Commission and in the extant literature. These indicators reflect economic, environmental, and social dimensions of tourism, and incorporate domains as diverse as attractions, capacities, pressure, regional dispersion, seasonality, and tourism growth. The results are robust with minor, albeit expected variations when it comes to the benchmarking results in particular, which signals the importance of interactive over static modeling. A certain degree of geographical clustering is also evident in the discussion of most and least inefficient countries. This study is of timely importance in the contemporary wake of economic recovery and the revival of overtourism (social and environmental) impacts on destinations. Ultimately, the study also contributes to the narrative on the difficulties of measuring tourism sustainability on a national level and will support destinations in their attempts to become more resilient and competitive in the long term.
📅 Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
🕒 Time: 3:00 PM CEST (UTC +2) (Central European Summer Time),
🌐 Format: Online — open to all
We look forward to seeing you there!
For any queries, please contact the seminar organizers: veronica.leoni@uib.es & oriol.anguera@cett.cat
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