Operational Efficiency Evaluation of Tourism Listed Firms in China: A Slack-Based Measure DEA Approach

Enhancing operational efficiency serves as a critical foundation for the high-quality development of China’s tourism industry. However, existing studies have shown limited attention to evaluating the operational efficiency at the firm-level. To this end, this study applies the Slack-Based Measure Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA) method to measure the operational efficiency of 13 tourism listed firms in China from 2017 to 2023. The findings reveal that the overall operational efficiency of tourism firms remains at a low level, suggesting substantial potential for improvement. From the perspective of heterogeneity, firms operating comprehensive cultural tourism perform better than those operating natural scenery tourism, and firms located in the eastern region demonstrate higher efficiency levels than their counterparts in the central and western regions. In addition, the efficiency gap among firms narrows following the pandemic. The input and output improvement analysis reveals a significant excess in employee investment and the deficiency in tourists received. Based on these findings, this study also provides some suggestions for improving operational efficiency.