Prioritizing Sustainability in Ethno-Tourism: An AHP Assessment of Rural Villages in the Balkans

Ethno-tourism is increasingly recognized as a driver of rural development and cultural preservation, particularly in the Balkans, where ethno-villages represent important centers of heritage, identity, and community revitalization. Despite its significance, the systematic assessment of sustainability in ethno-tourism remains underexplored. This study addresses this gap by applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to evaluate the sustainability performance of thirteen ethno-villages across Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia. Data were collected through interviews with owners and managers, complemented by benchmarking and SWOT analyses, to develop a multi-criteria model incorporating five dimensions: economic performance, environmental sustainability, infrastructure and management, tourism attractiveness, and socio-cultural aspects. The results highlight economic performance as the most influential factor, followed by environmental sustainability and infrastructure, while tourism attractiveness and socio-cultural aspects had relatively lower importance. The ranking of villages revealed Drvengrad Mećavnik (Serbia) as the most sustainable destination, with robustness confirmed through sensitivity analyses. This study represents one of the first comprehensive, multi-criteria evaluations of ethno-village sustainability in the Balkans. The results demonstrate that long-term success depends on balancing financial viability with ecological practices, infrastructural investment, and cultural preservation. This research provides evidence-based recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders, and highlights the value of multi-criteria approaches for sustainable tourism planning.