An integrated AHP and PROMETHEE approach to the evaluation of the attractiveness of European maritime areas for sailing tourism

Abstract

As a subject of scientific investigation, evaluations of the attractiveness of tourist destinations have had a relatively long history, particularly among geographers and regional economists. Based on mathematical and psychological principles and using methods that combine the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluation (PROMETHEE) approach, this research project constructs an evaluation structure used for the assessment of European coastal and offshore areas for sailing tourism. A case study with a three-level evaluation structure has been defined and tested. It contains: at the top of the hierarchy an overall objective defined as the attractiveness of the European coastal and offshore areas for sailing tourism; six criteria of evaluation (on the second level); and ten coastal areas (at the bottom level). This structure covers almost all the coasts around Europe, as they were the subjects of evaluation and comparison. The evaluation was carried out by a group of experts who made the assessment taking into account previously determined criteria with weights. The findings indicate that the AHP-PROMETHEE method may be a useful tool to evaluate the attractiveness of different destinations. It can be also used for practical purposes, particularly to determine strengths and weaknesses, as well as the competitive position, of given coastal areas in relation to others.

How to Rank Tourist Destinations: A Literature Review

“…Several Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) approaches assist tourists in selecting the best choice from the multiple options available by ranking them. In recent decades, a set of multi-criteria decision-making tools have been intensively applied to the evaluation of tourist attractiveness Butowski (2018). In this study, eight MCDM approaches such as; AHP, Fuzzy AHP, TOPSIS, ELECTRE, PROMETHEE, SMART, GRA and ANP are briefly examined in order to synthesize the opinions of many experts.…”

“…The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is a classical multi-criteria decision-making tool developed by the American Mathematician T. L. Saaty in the 1970s, and it has been extensively studied and refined since then (1980( , 1982( , 1987( , 1995( , and 2008( ) Butowski (2018. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is a qualitative method of weighing alternatives by examining key factors.…”

“…This last indicator tracks the economic impact of tourism on local residents and providers of services León Santiesteban and Leyva López (2017). The concept of the attractiveness of destinations (tourism attractiveness) is one of the most frequent issues studied in the theory of tourism and its adjacent disciplines in recent decades Butowski (2018). However, the use of tourist destination ranking is relatively less used as the television industry uses its ranking system (TRP or Television rating point) for determining various rates relating to that industry.…”

Ranking of Adaptive Reuse Strategies for Abandoned Industrial Heritage in Vulnerable Contexts: A Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding Approach

“…As mentioned, applications of PROMETHEE methods are various and address major issues such as environmental and energy management, water management, business and financial management, logistics, and transportation (see [36] for a literature review); whereas, according to the literature review by [24], PROMETHEE applications in tourism (see e.g., [24,46,47]), social sciences (see e.g., [48][49][50]), and urban and territorial planning are quite recent (see e.g., [24,[51][52][53][54][55]; see [24] for a recent literature review). As far as cultural heritage is concerned, there are some contributions that adopt multicriteria analysis and methods for the evaluation of cultural heritage (e.g., [56][57][58][59][60]), nonetheless to the best of our knowledge there are very few contributions on the application of PROMETHEE methods in the multicriteria evaluation of cultural heritage.…”

Zábavní průmysl jako faktor regionálního rozvoje: Má i Česká republika odpovídající předpoklady?

“…Výstavbou parku lze docílit oživení cestovního ruchu v daném regionu i relokace doprovodných aktivit do okolí parku. Návštěvnost a ekonomickou úspěšnost parků zvyšuje také jejich přirozená koncentrace v urbánním prostředí (většinou, ale nikoliv nutně), kde se nacházejí další turistické památky a atraktivity (Butowski, 2018). Vytváří se tak multiplikační efekt výhodný pro podnikatele i region.…”