Developing an Evaluation Index System for Sports Tourism Destination Competitiveness: An Integrated FDM-AHP Approach for the Greater Bay Area, China

This study develops a comprehensive evaluation index system for assessing the sports tourism destination competitiveness (STDC) of the Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). A three-round expert survey was conducted with a panel of 12 experts from academic, industry, and government backgrounds, comprising two Fuzzy Delphi rounds for indicator screening and one Analytic Hierarchy Process round for weight determination. The proposed index comprises 4 dimensions, 20 factors, and 36 indicators, grounded in Dwyer and Kim’s integrated model of tourism destination competitiveness and adapted to the sports tourism context. The Fuzzy Delphi results demonstrate expert consensus on the relevance and comprehensiveness of the retained indicators. The Analytic Hierarchy Process reveals that “endowed and created resources” (weight: 0.281) and “supporting factors” (weight: 0.278) are the highest-weighted dimensions, while “number of international and national sports events” (0.0663) and “number of natural scenic spots offering sports activities” (0.0621) rank as the top two indicators. The findings contribute a systematic framework for evaluating STDC across the 11 GBA cities and offer practical guidance for future strategic planning and policy coordination.