A PROMETHEE-GAIA Method-based Appraisal of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India

Evaluation of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHSs) in India has become a challenging activity for the tourism planners, policy makers and managers to create effective management strategies for them. In this paper, a combined application of preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) and geometrical analysis for interactive aid (GAIA) is presented to appraise the performance of 37 Indian UNESCO WHSs based on nine important criteria. It is observed that the Taj Mahal is the most attractive site for both domestic and foreign tourists, followed by the Historic City of Ahmadabad. On the other hand, Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park is the least visited site. Number of citations for a specific site in https://www.google.com appears to be the most important evaluation criterion, followed by the number of good accommodations. The application of this combined methodology would help the decision-makers to visualize the strengths and weaknesses of each of the Indian UNESCO WHSs so as to formulate suitable recommendations and policies to increase their tourism attractiveness