Productivity Evaluation of Tourism and Culture for Sustainable Economic Development: Analyzing South Korea’s Metropolitan Regions

Abstract

We analyzed the productivity of tourism- and culture-related economic activity in South Korea, adopting the Malmquist productivity index based on data envelopment analysis. We examined whether the productivity of tourism efficiently attracts financial investment. We used various objective indicators as the input and output variables of 16 metropolitan regions in South Korea between 2013 and 2018. To effectively understand the productivity of regions, the 16 metropolitan regions were categorized into four groups based on the ratio of financial independence and rate of city region, and regions were characterized as urbanized, traditional metropolitan, industrialized, or less developed. The findings reveal that the tourism industry in relatively less urbanized regions is more productive. Compared with other industries, public pre-investment and private investment strategies specific to tourism may yield more efficient results in terms of total production and employment. In other words, tourism may constitute a gateway to economic sustainability in less developed regions through the revitalization and/or balanced development of local structures.