The level of contribution of the hotel industry depends on different factors of production that they use in the provision of their services The way they use these factors of production will allow them to act efficiently, in order to improve profitability and market position. Ecuador, in recent years, has directed public policies betting on the development of this industry. In this sense, this research seeks to measure the efficiency and productivity of the Ecuadorian hotel industry. For this purpose, a significant sample has been selected; it consists of 147 businesses that provided hotel services during the period 2013–2017. These businesses are classified according to their quality and geographic location. This information has been useful to make a balanced panel data with one output (Revenue) and three inputs (Total_personnel, the non-current assets, and Consumption) by using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The results, which proved to be solid and accurate, indicate that the most efficient businesses are the ones in the third class, whereas those hotels located in zones with tourist attractions and activities have a better optimization of those resources. This situation has an effect on the significant improvement of their productivity.

The analysis of trust in the governments and the authorities has been a source of study in recent years, especially by the impact it has on facilitating economic growth and stability in developing countries. This paper analyses the institutional trust in Ecuador using data from an adapted survey of the European Social Survey. A synthetic indicator of institutional trust of Ecuadorian citizens is obtained by applying a fuzzy hybrid multi-criteria method. The analysis is based on six different dimensions, namely: (1) The Local Government (City Hall); (2) The Judicial System; (3) The Politicians; (4) Political Parties; (5) The National Parliament; and (6) the United Nations. The results obtained for the country, the nine provincial conglomerates and the gender segments show that institutional trust is not homogeneous among the provincial zones and that males trust more on institutions than females. The paper offers interesting insights to practitioners, researchers, academics, political scientists, and policymakers interested in Latin America. Suggestions for future research in the area, having in mind the existing data availability limitations, are provided.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to propose a methodological framework that calculates a synthetic indicator of satisfaction of citizens of the nine geographical areas of planning and development of Ecuador (zones).Methodology/Approach: The methodology is based on fuzzy logic and the degree of similarity to ideal solutions. The information is obtained through the application of a structured survey based on the European Social Survey to the Ecuadorian society. The analysis is based on eight different dimensions of satisfaction, namely: (1) Life; (2) Economy; (3) City Government; (4) Transparency; (5) Education; (6) Health System; (7) Roads; and (8) National Government.Findings: The results obtained help different stakeholders to have important insights about how the citizens’ quality of life and satisfaction depend to some extent on important public services that form the pillars of the social welfare, education and health system. However, our results also suggest that other areas of Ecuador can also benefit from the improvement of the policies developed by the local governments.Research Limitation/implication: An important research limitation is based on the limited number of segment variables used in the study, the geographical zones. Thus, an important venue for future research can be envisaged including other interesting traits analyzed by other scholars, like access to the internet, the social class or the size of the city.Originality/Value of paper: The analysis of individual satisfaction and citizens’ quality of life is paramount by the existing interdependence with social cohesion that exists nowadays in Ecuador.

El objeto de este trabajo consiste en determinar el rol de la presión demográfica sobre el recurso hídrico y su relación con el desarrollo turístico, esto se expresa a través de un índice de presión demográfica sobre el agua. La investigación se llevó a cabo en la provincia de Loja (Sudamérica, Ecuador). Los resultados indican que la mayor presión demográfica sobre el agua se concentra en un área muy pequeña, al representar el 2.5% del territorio, y aproximadamente la mitad del mismo tiene problemas de presión sobre el recurso hídrico. Estos resultados responden principalmente a la alta con centración poblacional relativa en estas zonas, y a los factores hidrológicos y climáticos característicos que condicionan la cantidad de agua disponible y con ello el desarrollo turístico principalmente de los cantones fronterizos.