Tourism village competitiveness analysis using MCDA approach (MACBETH technique)

Given the rising hype of tourism villages and the highly competitive market, it becomes a pre-requisite for tourism villages to ensure tourism competitiveness. This study aims at evaluating the competitiveness of the top tourism villages across the globe based on decision making from the multiple criteria of tourism villages. The existing research in the field of tourism village competitiveness highlights deficiencies in defining and prioritizing evaluation criteria, indicating a need for improvement in this area. By combining cognitive mapping (a knowledge-based technique) and MACBETH technique (categorical based evaluation technique), this study developed a comprehensive evaluation criterion, as a measure of tourism village competitiveness. The findings of this study recognize Tourist Facilities as the most influential factor, followed by Environmental Sustainability, in determining the attractiveness of a tourism village. Further, based on the attractiveness of tourism villages, Umm Qais, Jordan (UMQ) emerges as the highest performer with a score of 160.80 determined by fundamental point of views (FPV) identified with the help of stakeholders. The paper also addresses the drawbacks and managerial implications of the developed framework, offering valuable insights for various stakeholders.