Measuring and assessing sustainable tourism performance in emerging destinations (Case study: Kerman city)

As a product of consumerism and neoliberalism age, sustainable tourism is a complex system and an academic concept. Today, sustainability has turned into a key variable in competitiveness and a primary purpose for tourism managers. However, it is not easy to create a sustainable tourism. It is essential to provide strong interactions between dimensions and key factors of sustainable tourism and its effects on the environment. The present research is of a descriptive purpose and in terms of results is practical; also, the data collection tool is a questionnaire. The purpose of this study is to provide an integrated framework for identifying sustainability indicators and assessing and evaluating the indicators affecting four dimensions of sustainable tourism development in Kerman. Firstly, questionnaires were distributed in different areas of Kerman; after that, the results were weighted by Shannon entropy method, then achieved values were contrastively compared by using decision making models (electere, vikor and saw), and were tested and evaluated based on having the coefficient of influence. Regarding the nature of these models and characteristics of urban areas of Kerman, different models show different results, which are stated in the plan of used techniques. To achieve an acceptable result, Copeland's POSET technique which integrates the results of three models of electere, vikor and saw for evaluation is used, and from the sustainable tourism point of view, four urban areas of Kerman are assessed based on this technique.