Research note: Measuring tourism sustainability: an empirical comparison of different weighting procedures used in modelling composite indicators

This paper compares three different procedures for weighting sustainability indicators in the construction of composite indicators of tourism sustainability (TS). The case of Croatian coastal destinations is used. The particular weighting procedures are: (a) factor analysis (FA); (b) expert panel survey; and (c) the equal weights technique. As the results of this study reveal, the weights attached to different sustainability indicators can differ significantly depending on the weighting procedure used. Accordingly, inappropriate choice of weighting procedure could distort the relative importance of different sustainability indicators and thus could result in imperfect decisions by policymakers. The authors argue that the suitability of factor analysis as a weighting procedure in the construction of composite indicators of TS is rather questionable.