THE EVALUATION OF DEVELOPMENT EFFICIENCY FOR THE TOURISM AND RECREATION COMPLEX IN THE REGIONS OF RUSSIA WITH THE DEA METHOD

Abstract

The article presents the results of assessing the development efficiency of the tourism and recreation complex of Russia’s regions for the period from 2017 to 2021. This period includes both years of stability, characterized by predominance of positive trends in tourism development, and crisis and post-crisis years associated with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking into account the complexity of the structure of the tourism and recreation system and the need to improve territorial planning and management, an urgent task is to introduce a comprehensive, aggregated efficiency indicator to be used for assessment of regional tourism. The efficiency coefficient (efficiency score) calculated by means of the DEA (Data Envelope Analysis) method is proposed as such an indicator. The study is novel in that it develops a methodology for assessing the efficiency of regional tourism based on DEA. The essence of this method is as follows: basing on the theory of duality, having data of input and output parameters, it is possible to calculate the value of the efficiency indicator for a set of N-objects (in our study – subjects, i.e., constituent entities of the Russian Federation). For the calculations, we used a model focused on the ‘input’ and taking into account the variable scale effect. In models of this type, each inefficient object is compared with efficient objects that have the structure (ratios) of indicator values closest to the structure of this inefficient object. This allows one to determine how much to change the parameters of the tourism and recreation complex in order to achieve efficiency equal to 1 (which is the maximum score). The model used seven ‘input’ indicators and six ‘output’ indicators. The analysis of the results was carried out in the context of the tourist macro-territories designated in the strategic documents for the development of tourism in the Russian Federation. The data obtained indicate a decrease in the efficiency of tourism development in the Russian Federation, with the exception of a number of regions and two tourist macro-territories. The results of the study can be used to adjust regional tourism development programs.