There is evidence of specialisation in tourism destinations, but also a lack of literature regarding its impact on tourism regional performance. This study aims to contribute to the analysis of the determinants of tourism performance. To this end, the efficiency of 17 Spanish regions has been estimated by meta-frontier data envelopment analysis techniques over the 2008–2018 period. In the second stage, we adopt the bootstrapping method proposed by Simar and Wilson to measure the impact of explanatory factors on tourism efficiency. The results suggest that regions specialised in tourism may achieve higher efficiency levels. However, there is evidence of a catching-up process in the tourism technology of the Spanish regions over the last 10 years. Results also suggest that sand (kilometres of beaches) and insecurity are the key drivers of tourism efficiency. Moreover, natural attractions is the factor that most positively influences efficiency in non-specialised regions.
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