Iranian Economic Review

Iranian Economic Review

Comparing the Efficiency of Rural Ecolodges Using by Data Envelopment Analysis Method (Case Study: Iranian Provinces)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Maryam Rasoulzadeh 1
Ali Firoozzare 2
1 Tourism Research Institute, Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research (ACECR); Department of Economics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
2 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.
10.22059/ier.2024.361602.1007752
Abstract
Ecolodges, which allow visitors to stay in the community, are one of the services offered in rural tourism. This study aims to evaluate the efficiency of these units in the Iranian regions. The Ministry of Handicrafts, Cultural Heritage, and Tourism provided the necessary information, and the statistical population comprises ecolodge units in 31 provinces. The study is done using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), with the model’s inputs being the number of ecolodge units and the number of beds, and the outputs being the number of visitors and income, respectively, for each province. According to the features of the research, envelope form (BCC), slack-based measurement (SBM), super efficiency (SE), and most productive scale size (MPSS) models have been utilized among the many efficiency estimate models. The findings indicate that six provinces—Tehran, Mazandaran, Golestan, Isfahan, Qom, and Kurdistan—are efficient in ecolodge units and they have grade 1 in the efficiency calculations, whereas the other provinces in the country are inefficient when the overlap of the results of all four models is taken into account, and their efficiency scores are as follows: the provinces of “East Azerbaijan (0.75), West Azerbaijan (0.68), Ardabil (0.79), Alborz (0.65), Ilam (0.77), Bushehr (0.68), Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari (0.62), South Khorasan (0.67), Razavi Khorasan (0.9), North Khorasan (0.73), Khuzestan (0.95), Zanjan (0.87), Semnan (0.58), Sistan and Baluchestan (0.67), Fars (0.83), Qazvin (0.89), Kerman (0.84), Kermanshah (0.7), Kohgiluyeh (0.68), Gilan (0.88), Lorestan (0.9), Markazi (0.56), Hormozgan (0.8), Hamedan (0.7), and Yazd (0.64)”. Suggestions have also been made to attract tourists and boost the efficiency of ecolodge facilities.
Keywords
DEA method
ecolodge
most productive scale size model
slack-based measurement model
super efficiency model
Subjects
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Iranian Economic Review
Volume 30, Issue 2
Spring 2026
Pages 694-714