Research Note: Measuring Tourism Sustainability: An Empirical Comparison of Different Weighting Procedures Used in Modelling Composite Indicators

Ivan Kožić and Josip Mikulić
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Ivan Kožić: Institute for Tourism, Vrhovec 5, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Josip Mikulić: Department of Tourism, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, J.F. Kennedy Square 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Josip Mikulic

Tourism Economics, 2014, vol. 20, issue 2, 429-437

Abstract: This paper compares three different procedures for weighting sustainability indicators in the construction of composite indicators of tourism sustainability (TS). The case of Croatian coastal destinations is used. The particular weighting procedures are: (a) factor analysis (FA); (b) expert panel survey; and (c) the equal weights technique. As the results of this study reveal, the weights attached to different sustainability indicators can differ significantly depending on the weighting procedure used. Accordingly, inappropriate choice of weighting procedure could distort the relative importance of different sustainability indicators and thus could result in imperfect decisions by policymakers. The authors argue that the suitability of factor analysis as a weighting procedure in the construction of composite indicators of TS is rather questionable.

Keywords: sustainability; tourism; weighting procedure; composite indicator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:toueco:v:20:y:2014:i:2:p:429-437

DOI: 10.5367/te.2013.0283

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