Multi-criteria ELECTRE method and destination competitiveness

The aim of this research note is to implement an application of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method ELECTRE I to tourism destinations. By doing so, this paper contributes to the reflexion on tourism destination competitiveness which has known a greater interest these recent years. Despite that MCDA outranking methods can apply to any area, very few applications have been done to the tourism context. The case of four Hawaiian islands is used to show how ELECTRE I can be used to analyse tourism destination relative competitiveness. It is shown that ELECTRE I and Weighted-Sum Method (most widely MCDA applied approach) results differ. Empirical results illustrate the two different advantages of destinations (comparative and competitive advantages) and push to believe that competitive advantages are more closely linked to competitiveness than comparative ones.

► Tourism destination competitiveness is a growing interest research area.
► Destination competitiveness is studied through the Ritchie and Crouch's model.
► MCDA methods allow the operationalization of this model.
► ELECTRE I is applied on 4 Hawaiian islands with data from 2011 European visitors.
► ELECTRE I and Weighted-Sum Method results differ.
► Competitive adv. are more closely linked to competitiveness than comparative ones.