Network efficiency analysis ranks 117 countries on sustainable tourism performance

Researchers have developed a multistage network data envelopment analysis (NDEA) framework that evaluates how effectively 117 countries turn tourism inputs into competitive and sustainable outcomes. The model assesses performance across five dimensions — transportation infrastructure, information technology, service activity, tangible benefits, and sustainability governance — linked through three interconnected developmental stages. Rather than scoring national tourism sectors as single black boxes, the network structure traces where efficiency is gained or lost as infrastructure capacity feeds digital systems, service delivery, economic returns, and environmental stewardship.

The study’s temporal design is built around the COVID-19 pandemic. The team used the 2019 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index as a pre-pandemic baseline and paired it with the Travel and Tourism Development Index datasets from 2021 and 2024 as recovery-period benchmarks. This arrangement lets the analysis compare how national tourism systems stood on the eve of the pandemic against how they have performed while rebuilding, embedding post-pandemic recovery directly into the efficiency measurement rather than treating it as a separate question.

The results reveal pronounced continental contrasts. North America, Europe, and Oceania show stronger effectiveness in transportation infrastructure, information technology, and service activity, consistent with mature tourism sectors that convert capacity into delivered services efficiently. Africa and South America, by contrast, are identified as requiring further improvement in transforming tourism resources into tangible economic benefits. In the model’s terms, the weakness for these regions lies in the later stages of the network, where service activity must be converted into measurable economic returns.

A key feature of the framework is its integration of the tangible benefit and sustainability governance dimensions within a single efficiency assessment. The authors present this as a diagnostic tool that can pinpoint stage-specific areas for improvement, supporting destination competitiveness, more efficient use of tourism resources, and progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 8 on decent work and economic growth and Goal 12 on responsible consumption and production in the post-pandemic tourism context.

The study, published open access in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications on 22 October 2026 by Dong-Shang Chang, Wei-Chen Lai, and Chien-Hui Wang, is being shared early in accepted form and remains subject to further editorial processing. As an efficiency analysis built on composite index data, it measures relative performance among the 117 countries examined and identifies where conversion stages underperform; it does not establish causal effects of specific policies, and the reported gaps describe contrasts across regions rather than measured changes over time within them.

Subject of Research: Multistage network DEA assessment of sustainable tourism effectiveness across 117 countries aligned with the SDGs

Article Title: Bridging competitiveness and sustainability in tourism: a multistage network DEA approach aligned with the SDGs

Article References: Chang, D.-S., Lai, W.-C., & Wang, C.-H. (2026). Bridging competitiveness and sustainability in tourism: a multistage network DEA approach aligned with the SDGs. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-08556-3

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-08556-3

Keywords: sustainable tourism, data envelopment analysis, tourism competitiveness, SDG 8, SDG 12, post-pandemic recovery, network DEA, tourism governance, 117 countries, development index, Bridging, competitiveness