A hybrid MCDM model for identification and prioritisation of the factors affecting shopping behaviour of foreign tourists

Today, tourism industry has an important role on global economic growth; this can be considered as an important source of income in the countries such as Iran with tourism attractions. One of the factors of entering foreign currency in a tourism area is the amount of tourists' purchase. The objective of this study is to help the managers of Iranian companies active in tourism industry to get familiar with the most important factors affecting shopping behaviour of foreign tourists. To do this, the most important factors affecting shopping behaviour of tourists have been identified using research literature; and in continue, these factors ranked using SAW, TOPSIS, ELECTERE and LINMAP methods. Regarding that the results of above methods implementation in some cases were not compatible with each other; an integration technique called COPLAND method have been used to reach a general consensus.