Establishing a Sustainable Sports Tourism Evaluation Framework with a Hybrid Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model to Explore Potential Sports Tourism Attractions in Taiwan

Abstract

In recent years, the awareness of sustainable tourism has risen around the world. Many tourism industries combine sports to attract more customers to facilitate the development of the economy and the promotion of local culture. However, it is an important task to establish a comprehensive tourism evaluation framework for sustainable sports tourism. This study proposes a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) model to discuss the above issues, using the Bayesian Best Worst Method (Bayesian BWM) to integrate multiple experts’ judgments to generate the group optimal criteria weights. Next, the modified Visekriterijumska Optimizacija i Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) technique is combined with the concept of aspiration level to determine the performance of sports attractions and their priority ranks. In addition, this study adds a perspective of institutional sustainability to emphasize the importance of government support and local marketing. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed model is demonstrated through potential sports tourism attractions in Taiwan. A sensitivity analysis and models comparison were also performed in this study. The results show that the proposed model is feasible for practical applications and that it effectively provides some management implications to support decision-makers in formulating improvement strategies.

A Two-Stage MCDM Model for Exploring the Influential Relationships of Sustainable Sports Tourism Criteria in Taichung City

“…Musavengane et al [23] explored the security of tourism in African countries, holding that cultural tolerance, local security, medical and rescue flexibility and the integrity of environmental awareness are all key items for evaluation. Yang et al [24] first proposed a complete MCDM model of sustainable sports tourism, which established an effective evaluation system for tourist attractions in central Taiwan. Unfortunately, to our knowledge, no article has been conducted to examine the performance of sustainable sports tourism in the cities.…”

“…First, important criteria should be fully integrated into the evaluation system to reflect the characteristics and connotation of sports tourism. The initial criteria review was based on relevant academic literature [3,8,9,18,19,24] and expert interviews (a decision group was formed, including tourism industry, Taiwan Tourism Bureau, local government and environmental protection experts). The main framework includes four dimensions, namely social (S), environmental (G), economic (E) and institutional (I).…”

“…[9,18,19] Maintaining the lifestyle of urban residents (S2) While promoting urban sports tourism, it is necessary to ensure that it does not affect the original lifestyle and quality of residents. [18,19,22,24] Providing additional benefits for urban area residents (S3)…”

“…Providing additional benefits or subsidy programs for local residents, so that residents can better accept sports events and provide assistance. [18,19,24] Promoting social equity (S4) Respecting for equality and protection of participation rights of disadvantaged ethnic groups. [18,19,24] Insuring for participants (S5) Insuring for each participant and staff.…”

“…[18,19,24] Promoting social equity (S4) Respecting for equality and protection of participation rights of disadvantaged ethnic groups. [18,19,24] Insuring for participants (S5) Insuring for each participant and staff. [18] Actively donating part of the income to public welfare (S6) Some of the incomes from sports events will be donated to social welfare or public welfare organizations.…”