Multi-criteria Decision-making in the Tourism Domain: The Past, Present and Future of the Research Field

Abstract

The key objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the application of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) methods in papers published in prominent journals within the WoS database related to tourism. Based on the 252 papers which met the search criteria, this study determined the most commonly used MCDM methods as well as the reasons for their application. The study also identified the authors who employed the methods in their papers and whether or not the papers are team-oriented. The time frame within which the papers were published, along with the publishing trends within the specific period and finally, a model intended for predicting the developing trends within this research area was developed. Finally, the application of social network analysis gave an insight into the intellectual structure of the subject discipline and pointed to the most influential papers that were the subject of the content analysis.