Sustainability Ranking for Cuban Tourist Destinations Based on Composite Indexes

Abstract

Tourism sustainability evaluation has become an important issue in the development of this economic industry due to its dependence on natural environment quality and social acceptance. The study shows different ways to measure sustainability by means of composite indicators obtained from an initial set of quantitative and qualitative information. The use of different aggregation methods makes it possible to create rankings and offers remarkable contributions to the decision making process. We use the combination of dissimilar algorithms such as DP2 distance, Data Envelopment Analysis, Principal Component Analysis and Goal Programming to achieve these rankings and Borda Count to merge them into a single order to compare these destinations. Results shows different ways to measure sustainability using the overall information contained in a set of initial indicators and represent an important contribution to composite indicator’s building and for the formulation of new strategic actions, politics or other territorial or national projections.