Tourism, economic development and the corporate performance of the hospitality industry: An empirical study of Portuguese tourism regions

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effects of economic growth and tourism, as well as company-specific factors, on the business performance of the hospitality industry, through an empirical analysis with panel data, between 2011 and 2021, of 1299 hotels based in Portugal with the main economic activity classification 55 - Accommodation. The variables under study included financial performance indicators such as return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), financial performance measured by a CP SCORE variable and characterization variables such as age, size, legal form and the region in which the hotels are based. The methodology used panel regression tests and the results suggest that macroeconomic factors may be partially responsible for a small part of the variation in firm performance. Economic growth has a positive influence on ROA and competitiveness and tourism growth on the profitability variables ROA and ROE. Age and size influence economic and financial performance and there are differences between firms' performance according to legal form and region.