Determining the Competitiveness of Spa-Centers in Order to Achieve Sustainability Using a Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model

Апстракт
Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) possess many natural resources that can be exploited for the development of medical tourism. The o er of medical tourism in B&H is focused on spa tourism. B&H has 16 registered spa-centers o ering di erent types of services. This study provides a complete overview of the assessment of the current state of spa-centres using expert decision-making and methods of multi-criteria analysis. An innovative and novelMCDMmodel based on integration of the FUCOM (full consistency method) and fuzzy MARCOS (Measurement of Alternatives and Ranking according to COmpromise Solution) methods was used. The model consists of 16 alternatives and eight sustainable criteria. The results of this research have shown that the spa-centers of Ilidža near Sarajevo, Fojnica and Vru´cica have the best assessments of the current situation and prerequisites for sustainable business. These spa-centers should be a benchmark to other spas providing direction on how to improve their business to be more sustainable and competitive in the market. These esults were confirmed by a sensitivity analysis with two approaches used. The first approach was to compare the results obtained by the fuzzy MARCOS method with other fuzzy methods, and the second approach was to examine the influence of the application of di erent weights on the final ranking of the spa. The results of this study can serve spa-canter managers to understand the position of their spa-centers in order to exploit advantages they have and eliminate the shortcomings to improve their business.
Опис
Кључне речи
spa-centers; Bosnia and Herzegovina; sustainable tourism; FUCOM method; fuzzy MARCOS method
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