Title: Tourism development and collaborative evaluation: a multicriteria web based planning support system

Authors: Andrea De Montis, Peter Nijkamp

Addresses: Dipartimento di Ingegneria del Territorio, Sezione Costruzioni e Infrastrutture, Universita di Sassari, via De Nicola, 07100 Sassari, Italy. ' Department of Spatial Economics, Free University of Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105 – 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract: In this paper, experimentation is proposed where multicriteria analysis is integrated with distributed computing within an interactive evaluation process. The technicalities of the application are introduced by some philosophical background remarks on the dynamics of communicative processes, which characterise current digital age. This paper is twofold. First, it presents recent research advances on the so-called digital revolution and on |cyberplanning|. Second, it describes a collaborative and web-based multicriteria procedure, which is constructed to assess the territorial attitude of seven municipalities in Sardinia, Italy, to sustainable and integrated tourist development.

Keywords: cyberplanning; web-based planning support systems; collaborative multicriteria evaluation; sustainable tourism; multicriteria analysis; internet; Italy; tourist development; sustainable development; environmental management; virtual environment; tourism evaluation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETM.2006.008289

International Journal of Environmental Technology and Management, 2006 Vol.6 No.1/2, pp.40 - 64

Published online: 29 Nov 2005 *

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