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Sustainability Ranking for Cuban Tourist Destinations Based on Composite Indexes

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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.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thanks to the reviewers for their valuable comments useful to improve the quality of our work. We also want to thanks to Mr. Aaron Chambers for editing the English. Víctor Pérez wants to acknowledge the grant from the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) as well as him and Alain Hernández to the grant of the Foundation for the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) from Brazil.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mathematics Department, University of Pinar del Río, Martí Final No 270, 20100, Pinar del Río, Cuba

    Víctor Pérez, Alain Hernández & María Amparo León

  2. Quantitative Methods and Economic History Department, Pablo de Olavide University, Ctra. Utrera Km. 1, 41013, Seville, Spain

    Víctor Pérez & Flor Guerrero

  3. Post Graduate Program in Technology, Federal Technological University of Paraná, Av. Sete de Setembro, 3165, Curitiba, PR, 80230-901, Brazil

    Christian Luiz da Silva

  4. Department of Applied Economics (Mathematics), University of Malaga, Campus El Ejido, 29071, Málaga, Spain

    Rafael Caballero

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  1. Víctor Pérez
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Correspondence to Víctor Pérez.

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Pérez, V., Hernández, A., Guerrero, F. et al. Sustainability Ranking for Cuban Tourist Destinations Based on Composite Indexes. Soc Indic Res 129, 425–444 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1110-7

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