An exploratory study: the importance of human resources in hotel performance in the Galapagos Islands

Abstract The Galapagos National Park is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Ecuador and an icon of the country. In 2018, the Galapagos Islands received 275,817 tourists, representing a 14% growth compared to 2017. Despite the ecological and tourist importance of these islands, the hotel industry faces significant challenges in its companies’ professional management. One of the biggest problems that decision-makers encounter is the lack of information about the hotel management performance in the islands. For this reason, this research focuses on three points: (i) a study on the hotel industry reality, (ii) the implementation of an analysis tool to assess the efficiency of hotel management which allows a correct comparison among them, and (iii) a review of the professionalization of the industry. The chosen model is the Data Envelopment Analysis for its unique characteristics and because it has been widely used and tested in the tourism industry. The findings obtained in this study show that hotel performance is unbalanced caused by the unique features existing in this land and by the formal education obtained by the general managers.