Composite ecotourism potential index based on an integrated stochastic CRITIC-weighted sum method

Abstract

ABSTRACT This work develops a computational platform to evaluate the ecotourism potential of tourist sites (alternatives) under multiple indicators (criteria). Such a platform is a generalized multi-attribute decision-making approach based on the integration of Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) and the weighted sum method (WSM) under a stochastic environment. In this proposed approach, a randomly generated decision matrix is formed, derived from the initial judgments of decision-makers. Then, the priority weights of the criteria are obtained through CRITIC, while the WSM generates the global priority vector of alternatives. A stochastic process based on Monte Carlo simulation generates a large set of global priority vectors. The aggregation of these vectors yields the final priorities of the alternatives. Contextually, it generates a single-valued composite ecotourism potential index which provides the overall performance of the potential ecotourism sites. Evaluating 47 tourist sites under eight indicators demonstrates the proposed approach. Findings and insights are discussed.