Measuring Tourism Efficiency for Sustainable Tourism Policies: An Empirical Study for India

India is full of biodiversity so are all its states and union territories. Many states are larger than many other countries of Europe and Africa whereas others are too small in terms of size, population, socio-economic and ecological diversity. It is possible to analyze the tourism efficiency of all Indian states and union territories to evaluate whether the states and union territories are harvesting maximum tourist arrivals by managing their diverse range of physical attraction features and human resources eflectively. This study measures the tourism efficiency for all Indian states and union territories based on relevant national resources, economic, and deterrent variables derived from secondary data sources. The findings of the study confirm that the smaller states are performing better than the larger states as far as the environmental aspects and economic aspects are considered. The regression results also confirm that the area and per capita Gross State Domestic Product both are playing a significant role in shaping the tourism efficiency of the states of India. This perspective of ranking states and union territories adds significant inputs for future tourism planning and policy issues with certain important comparisons and recommendations.