Fuzzy MCDM models for selection of the tourism development site: the case of Azerbaijan

Abstract

Background: One of the vital issues in promoting the sustainable tourism industry in developing countries, including Azerbaijan, is the well-grounded selection of tourism sites. Applying traditional approaches as a solution to this task, does not provide a relevant result in all cases in these countries due to local specifics of the tourism, the incompleteness of statistical data, the high-level uncertainty of the internal and external environment, and the questionable reliability of the available information. Methods: Since the statistical data are limited, and conventional formalization tools used for uncertainty description do not consider the reliability degree of the data, it is suggested to make decisions based on the Z-extension of fuzzy logic. A Delphi panel with the expert group is conducted to obtain the information required for the model development. Fuzzy Z-information-based TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods are applied for the problem solution. Within these approaches Z-number-based procedures of the decision matrix normalization, defining the distance between solutions and the preference function, and swing weights determination are realized. Direct computations with Z-numbers are implemented. Results: By applying Z-number-based multi-criteria decision-making methods, five potential regions of Azerbaijan have been evaluated for six criteria. The criteria reflect government policy to the development of the regions, economical, geographical, environmental factors, and infrastructure of the locations. Derived solutions are comparable in sense of sites ranking, and similar results were obtained using both methods. Direct calculations allow obtaining results based on the linguistic Z-evaluations of experts without distorting transformations. Conclusion: The managerial decision-making problems in the tourism sector, raised due to the aforementioned barriers, can be successfully resolved by applying Z-number-based multi-criteria approaches. The obtained results allow increasing a range of the decision-making tasks under a high degree of uncertainty to be solved for sustainable development studies and other areas.

The Application of Z-Numbers in Fuzzy Decision Making: The State of the Art

“…In another study by Nuriyev [14], he extended the TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods into a Z-number-based methodology using the direct calculation of Z-numbers. The proposed models were then applied in the selection of the tourism development sites in Azerbaijan.…”

“…It was noted that a Z-number has a higher level of generality, which makes it very powerful in realistically modelling real-world systems. The concept of Z-number is capable of better describing imperfect information in expressions that are almost close to the natural language [14]. This is due to the fact that Z-numbers are capable of representing the uncertainty of the real world as well as the unreliability of human languages [15].…”

“…The invention of software that can process decision information in the form of Z-numbers is vital to simplify mathematical calculation [14]. The availability of such software helps experts from other fields such as business, economy, finance, psychology, and education solve their problems that involve various attributes and alternatives.…”

Multicriteria Decision Making in Sustainable Tourism and Low-Carbon Tourism Research

“…A Bayesian-based BWM was also applied . Other commonly used methods from the last category include Z-number-based fuzzy TOPSIS and PROMETHEE (Nuriyev, 2022), unweighted TOPSIS (Benítez & Liern, 2021;Vicens-Colom et al, 2021), 2-Tuple DEMATEL (Ren, 2020), Fuzzy DEMATEL combined with Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) (Tseng et al, 2018) and Cooperative Game Theory (Bai & Chen, 2021). Several more methods incorporate the use of single-valued neutrosophic sets (SVNSs), as applied to MULTIMOORA and MEREC, which were then compared with SVN-TOPSIS, SVN-COPRAS, SVN-WASPAS, and Zhang method , including those using fuzzy set-based including Interval-Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets (IVPFSs) SWARA, MULTIMOORA and TOPSIS (He et al, 2021), as well as interval-valued Fermatean fuzzy numbers (IVFFNs) COPRAS and CRITIC (Rani et al, 2022).…”

Investigating the Effects of Covid-19 on Tourism in the G7 Countries

“…Dina and Juniarta (2022) employed VIKOR to identify criteria and rank the hotel based on users' reviews. Nuriyev (2022), to select development sites for tourists in Azerbaijan, implemented Fuzzy Z-information-based TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods. Mohammed et al (2023) used a decision modeling approach for smart E-Tourism data management applications based on a Spherical fuzzy rough sets environment (SFR-WZIC and SFR-DOSM).…”