Eco-efficiency, eco-productivity and tourism growth in China: a non-convex metafrontier DEA-based decomposition model

Abstract

Understanding the effects of changes in the eco-efficiency and eco-productivity of the tourism industry on its growth will inform tourism policymaking. Based on a combination of the non-convex metafrontier model, data envelopment analysis, and structure decomposition analysis, this study develops a novel model to measure changes in the eco-efficiency and eco-productivity of China’s provincial tourism industries during 2005–2015, and then decomposes tourism growth into six components. Our findings indicate that China's tourism eco-efficiency had 19.3% potential for improvement, and showed distinct spatial characteristics. China’s tourism eco-productivity initially increased and then declined slightly due to the combined effects of changes in the eco-efficiency, technical gap, and eco-technology. Additionally, changes in eco-productivity exerted a promoting effect on tourism growth owing to an eco-technical change effect, with such promoting effect declining in the latter part of the sample period because of the growing differences in endogenous capabilities between provinces. Furthermore, among all the decomposition items, the eco-environmental overload effect is the largest driving force for China’s tourism growth, suggesting that promoting tourism growth at the cost of the eco-environmental burden is the theme of China’s tourism development during the sample period.