The tourism productivity challenge: Are we measuring the right factors and is productivity growth unlimited?

Abstract

The OECD, UNWTO, and numerous countries national data gathering organisations report that their tourism industry underperforms in terms of productivity when compared to other industries. While not disagreeing with the facts arrived at by the tools used to measure productivity, this paper challenges the rhetoric that the tourism industry has significant productivity gains available to it, and the presented view that growth is unlimited - in doing so the paper seeks to develop a deeper understanding of productivity in a service-intensive industry such as tourism. It further presents an argument for refining and potentially re-defining the term ‘productivity’ with reference to the tourism industry, which requires a deeper understanding of what tourism operators presently consider appropriate productivity measures.