Multi-Criteria Decision Framework to Support Managerial Choices in IT-Enabled Waste Reduction and Sustainability in Tourism

Sustainable tourism is essential for preserving natural habitats and represents a vital component of sustainable development. This study addresses a business decision-making problem related to natural resource conservation and habitat protection through waste management and IT applications in the Serbian hotel sector. Tourism in Serbia and the Western Balkans represents a sensitive issue concerning the balance between economic development and environmental protection. Therefore, the multi-criteria optimization methods Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) are applied to address this problem. To achieve this goal, a hierarchical model was developed that considers nine criteria and four alternatives. The alternatives considered are: service user satisfaction, service cost, waste minimization, and service quality. The developed model was analyzed using a hybrid AHP–TOPSIS approach to identify the optimal alternative. The results indicate that environmental waste prevention ranks highest among all considered alternatives and plays a significant role in the development of sustainable tourism in Serbia.