Abstract
The article develops an integrated framework for assessing the economic efficiency of tourism, based on a combination of an index approach and regression analysis of elasticities. The Tourism Economic Efficiency Index (TEEI) has been built, reflecting the balance between the economic results of tourism activities and the scale of labor and infrastructure resources used. Based on annual data for the period 2003-2024. The empirical analysis traces the dynamics of efficiency at successive stages of tourism development, including the expansion phase, maturity stage and post-shock recovery. The results obtained indicate a long-term shift from efficiency-based growth to a predominantly extensive development model characterized by a decrease in economic returns per unit of resources used. The recovery of indicators after 2021 is mainly compensatory, rather than structural. Elasticity estimates show that there is no statistically significant dependence of tourist income on the total tourist flow, while there is a positive and economically significant elasticity in domestic tourism and the capacity of accommodation facilities. By linking the composite efficiency assessment with the elasticities of supply and demand, the proposed framework is a reproducible tool for analyzing the transformation of tourism growth into economic outcomes. The methodology is portable and suitable for comparative and cross-country studies in various institutional and economic contexts.