Benchmarking and tourism efficiency in France

• Tourism performance in France is analyzed at the conurbation level.
• Three categories of hotels are considered: mid-price, economy and budget.
• A hierarchical category DEA model is used.
• Paris is the benchmark for the different categories.
• Budget hotels are more efficient than the other categories.

The purpose of this note is to improve our understanding of the French tourism paradox. A technical efficiency analysis of the French hospitality sector is carried out that includes different categories of hotels – mid-price, economy and budget. A hierarchical category Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model is employed to take account of the heterogeneity across the categories. Several research hypotheses are tested with regard to the location and category of the hotels. The results show that Paris is the benchmark and budget hotels are more efficient than other categories.