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Abstract: The tourism sector has evolved in recent times, with a transformation in tourists’ preferences and behaviour. They are increasingly abandoning standard tours in favour of more personalised options. New technologies offer easy access to a large amount of tourism information. However, this also means it is difficult for a decision-maker to assess all the possible alternatives for designing a customised trip. Making such decisions may well require the resolution of conflicting objectives. Therefore, in this paper we develop a tool that provides each tourist with the itinerary best suited to their needs. This itinerary can include the desired different activities on an established schedule, bearing in mind the tourist’s wishes and needs, along with the characteristics of the area. This is done by using a mathematical model and interactive multi-criteria techniques. Finally, we will carry out a practical application in the Autonomous Region of Andalusia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper proposes a methodology for obtaining a synthetic indicator to facilitate decision making in practical situations. It is based on goals provided by the users, which will be included in a synthetic indicator by a goal-programming approach. This methodology facilitates interpreting the values of the synthetic indicator, and thus helps in the decision-making process. We not only formulate these indicators, but also analyze their properties and apply them to the analysis of a complex concept, sustainable tourism. We use this methodology to study the case of coastal areas of Andalusia (Spain), attempting to identify the main characteristics of the different elements, their weakness and strengths. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Sustainable tourism is being consolidated at an international level as an approach that should be used to make all types of tourism more environmentally, socially and economically beneficial. A common practice is to use an indicator system for designing and implementing tourism models that focuses on the sustainability approach. Indicators are considered as useful tools that allow tourism managers to diagnose the situation of the destination, and to identify and evaluate issues that require addressing to improve the level of sustainability of the tourist activities. However, these indicator systems usually do not provide a practical guide to establish how to interpret information and how to integrate it into the decision-making. In this paper we present an indicator system to evaluate sustainable tourism at cultural destinations. Likewise, we suggest a method based on goal programming to construct composite indicators. The definition of the indicator system and composite indicators is completed providing guidelines that establish how to use these tools in tourism sector planning. Specifically, we propose three basic practical uses for these tools: the formulation of general action plans at a regional level, the definition of short-term strategies for destinations and the establishment of destination benchmarking practices. Each practical use is illustrated using the case of cultural tourism destinations in the Andalusia region (Spain). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Tourism is one of the most dynamic sectors of worldwide economy; therefore, its development in the present context, assists to be economically viable, socially compatible and provides the lowest damage to the resources in the zone that it takes place. This only consists in guaranteeing the sustainability of this activity. For this purpose, the development of an indicators system to provide the management of its sustainability constitutes one of the main options to be taken into account. The present investigation shows an indicators system to the valuation of the sustainability in rural tourism zones, in fact, applied to rural destinations in Andalusia (Spain). Starting from this system, we construct composite indicators that give the possibility to measure the tourist sustainability and improve the understanding of information by the stakeholders in the decision making process. These indicators are characterized by an easy comprehension, due to they reduce the initial quantity of indicators with a lower amount of information lost; besides, they can be used to set up comparisons between different zones and provide the valuation of its behavior in a long period of time. These composite indicators construction occurs by techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (ACP) and the Distance Composite Indicator DP2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a system of Sustainable Tourism Tags to evaluate the management of tourist destinations, using the information from a composite indicator called the Differential Dynamic Index. This vectorial indicator has two components: one dynamic which shows the advance or regress in time of each destination in terms of sustainability; the other static that compares the situation, at a moment of time, of each zone using multiple benchmarks according to each territory's physical characteristics and tourist activity. The sustainable tourism tags are awarded to the places which show advances, thus rewarding the work carried out by their managers. This system is a practical tool to link the evaluation of the indicator with the planning and management decisions of the destinations. We therefore define a linear programming problem which enables, for each destination, determining the minimum change necessary in the indicators to improve their qualification in the tag system. Finally, we present a case study for the urban destinations of Andalusia (Spain) that illustrates the practical application of the proposed tool. • A vectorial composite indicator is used to evaluate tourist destinations via multiple benchmarks. • We propose a Sustainable Tourism Tags to assess destination management. • Sustainable Tourism Tags are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic plans designed by the regional governments. • An improvement linear programming model is defined to formulate an objective strategy to obtain the best category tag. • The system of qualification via tags can mean an incentive to motivate local managers to carry out their work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]