Promoting sustainable tourism with a decision support system during cost-of-living crises

The cost-of-living crisis directly affects eco-conscious tourists’ behaviors, leading to reduced consumption of green products and services. In response to these crises, tourists may have to prioritise more affordable, non-green alternatives. Economic crises are recurrent, disrupting the sustainability agenda for decision makers, businesses and tourists. To address this challenge, this study proposes a multicriteria decision-making framework for tourism service providers that balances business interests with tourists’ needs and preferences during economic downturns. This framework evaluates tourist-centric strategies, supply chain and production strategies and marketing and advertising strategies based on four criteria: cost, applicability, social acceptance and environmental benefits. Rich data from 152 experts in tourism management and sustainability from South Korea were collected using a survey to conduct the best–worst method (BWM). Results reveal that cost and applicability are the most influential factors in assessing sustainable tourism strategies during cost-of-living crises. This finding suggests that tourist-centric strategies should be prioritised over marketing, advertising and supply chain or production strategies.