Assessing Sustainable Rural Community Tourism Using the AHP and
TOPSIS Approaches under Fuzzy Environment
M. Mujiya Ulkhaq, Pradita Y. Akshinta, Rizal L. Nartadhi and Susatyo Nugroho W. P.
Department of Industrial Engineering, Diponegoro University, Semarang 50275, Indonesia
Abstract. Tourism is currently a sector that is growing into an important and significant world activity. The develop-
ment of an area where the tourist destination located in affects the growth of the tourism. In addition, the success of
tourist destinations are influenced by their relative competitiveness; hence, they do compete each other to offer the
best service to satisfy their customers. Rural tourism in Indonesia is believed as emerging business since there are
abundant sites located in rural area that offers fascinating attractions to the visitors. This study aims to evaluate the
rural tourism using sustainable indicators, namely, service quality, facilities, management system, and outcome. A
combination of fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS are employed to select five rural tourism in Central Java Province. Result
shows that service quality is considered as the most important attribute with weight of 28.6%, while Dieng is named
for the excellent rural tourism. This finding might offer the service providers with valuable insights into the attribute
that reflects customers’ perceptions about rural tourism; also to position their services based on their competitors.
1 Introduction
Over the past decade, the convention industry has conti-
nued to grow on a global and regional basis. It is a multi-
service industry that delivers huge benefits both directly
and indirectly in various area including tourism,
convention center, accommodations and transportation,
restaurants, entertainment, communication, trading, and
many more. It also has been recognized for its valuable
economic contribution to tourism destinations and its
substantial growth potential [1].
Tourism, as a part of convention industry, is one of
the largest and fastest growing industries in the world [2].
It is commonly believed to be a viable means of raising
the economic activity of such areas. Furthermore, the
development of a tourism industry is widely considered
to promote the destination’s image, enabling the area to
achieve other goals, such as business recruitment and
retention [3].
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council,
in 2014, tourism industry has total contribution to world’s
GDP of USD 7,580.9 billion—it is expected to grow
more than 50% in 2025—and to employment of 276,84—
it is expected to grow about 30% in 2025 [4]. In Indo-
nesia, total number of foreign tourist arrivals in 2014 was
9.44 million, up 7.19% from the preceding year, meaning
that the government target of welcoming 9.3 million
foreign tourists last year was achieved [5]. Given the
expected growth of tourism, there is a great optimism for
rural tourism. Numerous researchers have acknowledged
tourism as a potential economic development tool, parti-
cularly for rural communities [6]. It is progressively
being used as a development strategy to improve the
social and economic well-being of rural areas.
Rural tourism encompasses a huge range of activities
and interests in farms, nature, adventure, sports, health,
education, arts, and heritage taking place in countryside
as a multi-faceted activity rather than farm-based tourism
only [7]. Reference [8] further broaden the concept of
rural tourism to include living history of countryside such
as rural custom and folklore, local and family traditions,
values, beliefs, and common heritage.
Rural tourism in Indonesia holds great potential in
terms of sustainable rural development. Sustainable deve-
lopment for community tourism should intend to improve
the residents’ quality of life by optimizing local economic
benefits, protecting the natural and built environment, as
well as providing a high-quality experience for visitors
[9], [10].
It should both provide a long-term economic
linkage between destination communities and industries
[11], and also minimize the negative effects of tourism on
the natural environment and improve the socio-cultural
well-being of the destination communities as well. It is
getting increased recognition as a rural economic deve-
lopment tool. The government initiatives have sought to
boost tourism as an economic substitute for traditional
rural economic activities.
Rural tourism in Indonesia is quite emerging since the
rural population is about 47% of total population in 2014
[12] and 31.5% of total land is agriculture [13]. Conse-
quently, there are abundant tourist destinations located in
rural area that embrace neighborhoods community to
attract the visitors. This study aims to select the best
sustainable rural community tourism in Central Java
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Creative
Commons
Attribution
License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Province. It may provide some insights to the officer or
supervisor of the rural tourism on how patrons rate the
rural tourism; hence enabling the officers to position their
businesses based on their competitors and to discover the
dimensions of sustainable rural community tourism that
they have to improve.
This study utilized the combination of fuzzy analytic
hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order
performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to
pursue the objective of the research. To be simple, the
fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS approach extends the AHP and
TOPSIS [14], [15] by combining it with the fuzzy set
theory [16]. Despite of the advantages as seeking consis-
tency and allowing decision makers to structure complex
problems in the form of a hierarchy levels, AHP and
TOPSIS has been criticized for its inability to handle the
ambiguity of the concepts that are associated with human
being’s subjective judgment which are represented as
precise numbers. However, in real life situations, the
linguistic assessment of perceptions are fuzzy. Hence, it
is more reasonable to represent it in terms to give interval
judgments rather than fixed value judgments. The
combination of fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS is widely used in
the researches; see for example [17]–[19].
2 Research design
In this study, the attributes for evaluating sustainable
rural community tourism were determined as four main
attributes, i.e. service quality, facility, management sys-
tem, and outcome. The attributes and their sub-attributes
are based on research by [20]. However, they had been
slightly modified since this study was conducted in
Indonesia, especially in Central Java Province, which has
different characteristics than the original research.
The first main attribute is service quality (SQ), which
is actually an abstract construct that is difficult to define
and measure, since the nature of the service is intangible,
simultaneous, and heterogeneous. Despite of numerous
researches that are studied about how to measure the
service quality, there is no general agreement with regard
to the content of its dimensions [21]. In this study, it does
not utilize the dimensions of service quality used by
several researchers, for example [22], [23], since the
dimensions are developed in the hospitality service, such
as restaurants, hotels, banking, health cares, etc., besides,
the sub-attributes that are used in this study are accessibi-
lity (SQ1) and convenience (SQ2). The first can be
defined as the ability for visitors to access the site
location; it can be measured with the provision of site
homepage, guidebook and map, and directional sign to
the location within let say five kilometers. The second
can be measured by ratio of householders who have
checklists for bedding and able to pay using credit card.
The second main attribute is facilities (F), which
consists of three sub-attributes: accommodations (F1),
subsidiary facilities (F2), and environment (F3). Accom-
modation is measured by the ratio of rooms isolated from
host family house, the ratio of rooms with flush toilet,
and the ratio of rooms with shower bath. Subsidiary
facilities mean meeting room with about a 20-person
capacity and parking lots that hold over let say 20 cars.
Environment can be measured by refuse disposal system
in their community.
The third main attribute is management system (MS),
which consists of four sub-attributes: community plan-
ning (MS1), collaborated community business (MS2),
community management (MS3), and tourism business
(MS4). Community planning can be divided into long-
term community plan for last three years, fund-raising in
their community, and amount of expert consultation for
developing tourism. Collaborated com-munity business
holds four criteria, i.e. community festival, ratio of house-
holders with tourism management diary, value-added
processing businesses in their community, and internet
sales for their own products in their community. Commu-
nity management can measured by minutes and account
book for community council meetings, propaganda
within last three years, organizing and participating in
local tourism development council, and enacting commu-
nity agreements. The last sub-attribute, tourism business,
comprises four criteria, i.e. ratio of householders’ partici-
pating in community tourism business, full-time worker
to manage their tourism business, visitors’ insurance, and
constructing customer database.
The last attribute is outcomes (O), which comprises of
two sub-attributes: satisfaction (O1) and income total
sales (O2). Satisfaction represents residents’ satisfaction
and visitors’ satisfaction. Income and total sales means
increasing rate of a number of visitors, increasing rate of
direct sales, number of one company one village linkage,
and ratio of equity capital per government assistance.
The objective of this study is set to find out the best
sustainable rural community tourism in Central Java
Province, Indonesia. Bandungan, Baturaden, Dieng,
Kopeng, and Sidomukti are selected because they could
be considered as leading tourist attractions in Central
Java Province. The map of those five is depicted in Fig. 1.
Visitors can learn and explore the nature, the panoramic
beauty of the scenery, as well as interact with the
residents who are living there.
Figure 1. Map of objects of the study.
Bandungan is a potential tourist destination, which is
located on the mountain slope at the Ungaran Mountain.
It has a very beautiful natural scenery. Numerous distinc-
tive vegetables, fresh fruits, and lovely flowers can be
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found along the way. Bandungan is a paradise for nature
lovers; there are many wonderful rides and challenging
natures. Coffe café, spa, traditional temple called Gedong
Songo, camp of rose, flower markets, and Rawa Pening, a
beautiful tiny-lake, can be discovered in Bandungan. In
addition, its beautiful panorama is usually exploited by
photographers, or even by a couple for his/her wedding
proposal’s photoshoots.
Figure 2. The evaluation framework of the sustainable rural community tourism model.
The next site is Baturaden. Five of eleven tourist
destinations in Banyumas are located in Baturaden. It
becomes a leading tourist district area in Banyumas since
it is frequently visited by domestic or foreign visitors. It
has been known as a tourist resort with a variety of
exciting attractions with complete facilities supporting it.
A plateau of Dieng is located at the northeast Banjar-
negara, and could be regarded as the number two tourist
destination in Central Java after Borobudur. There are
Arjuna and Ghatotkacha Complex—two major charac-
ters of puppetry in Java legend, Bima temple, Dwarawati
and Jalatunda wells, archeological museum, Bale-
kambang lake, Merdada tiny-lake, Sikidang Candra-
dimuka, and Sileri craters, as well as Bitingan hot spring
waters. Located at the altitude of 2,093 meters above the
sea level, Dieng plateau has fresh air temperature range
from 15 to 20 degrees Celsius, and sometimes foggy
when the weather is cloudy.
Kopeng is located in the Semarang area. It has several
ideal locations that could be used by family as a recrea-
tion spot, camp, meeting, and seminar held by govern-
ment or private institution. It also provides a camping
ground for outbound activity. There are lodging of
Kartika Travel, Songo Bannerman camping ground, and
Mount Merbabu climbing spot. It presents gorgeous
panorama in countryside combined with the landscape
full of beautiful flowers and various fresh vegetables.
Sidomukti is also located in the Semarang area precisely
in the slope of Ungaran Mountain. Sidomukti nature
parks is located at an altitude of 1,200 meters above the
sea level. The open-for-public swimming pool is very
attractive for visitors since it serves a beautiful view of
the mountain. Sidomukti also provides an exciting adre-
naline game for visitors with affordable cost.
In order to apply the fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS
methodology to the prioritizing of attributes for assessing
the sustainable rural community tourism, the attributes
abovementioned are initially structured into different
hierarchy levels. The hierarchy of the decision model is
shown in Fig. 2, where the goal is to select the best
sustainable rural community tourism in Central Java
Province. This hierarchy of attributes is the subject of a
pairwise comparison of the methods being used. Data are
collected from five experts who are very fond of traveling
and have abundant experiences in visiting rural commu-
nity tourism. The decision makers are asked to compare
the elements on a pairwise basis in order to estimate their
relative importance in relation to the element at the
immediately preceding level, i.e. the attributes. A nine-
point scale questionnaire is used to show the decision
makers’ judgment between options as equally, moderately,
strongly, very strongly, and extremely favourable (or
unfavourable).
3 Fuzzy AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS
There are various fuzzy AHP methods proposed by
numerous authors to handle the comparison matrices.
Among them, [24] is widely used due to its
implementation simplicity to calculate relative weights.
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A fuzzy number is a special fuzzy set
RxxAxF ,
~
,
, where x takes values on the real
line, R: –∞ < x < +∞ and
xA
~
is a continuous mapping
from R to the closed interval [0,1]. A triangular fuzzy
number denoted as
umlA ,,
~
, where l ≤ m ≤ u, has the
following triangular-type membership function:
otherwise,
,,
,,
,0
,
,
~
umx
mlx
mu
x
mu
u
lm
l
lm
x
xA
(1)
where l, m, and u are lower, mid, and upper value of the
support of M respectively, as well as m is the mid-value
of
A
~
. In this study, first linguistic terms are used to
represent the decision makers’ assessments, and then
triangular fuzzy numbers (TFN) are used for evaluations.
The four-step-procedure is given as follows:
1. Compare the performance score. Linguistic terms are
used to indicate the relative strength of each pair of
elements in the same hierarchy.
2. Construct the fuzzy comparison matrix
A
~
.
3. Solve the fuzzy eigenvalue. A fuzzy eigenvalue
~
, is
a fuzzy number solution to
xxA
~
~
~
~
, where
max
~
is
the largest eigenvalue of
A
~
and
x
~
is a non-zero fuzzy
vector containing fuzzy number
i
x
~
.
4. The priority weight of each alternative can be
obtained by multiplying the matrix of evaluation
ratings by the vector of attribute weights and summing
over all attributes.
After having weight of each alternative, fuzzy
TOPSIS method is being employed. The steps are
presented as follows:
1. Compute the fuzzy positive ideal solution (FPIS) and
fuzzy negative ideal solution (FNIS) as follows:
**
2
*
1
~
,...,
~
,
~
FPIS
n
vvvA
(2)
n
vvvA
~
,...,
~
,
~
FNIS
21
(3)
where
ij
i
j
vv max
~
*
,
ij
i
j
vv min
~
, i = 1, …, m; j = 1, …,
n; and v
ij
is weighted normalized matrix.
2. Compute the distance of each alternative from FPIS
and FNIS
ii
dd ,
*
:
n
j
jijvi
vvdd
1
**
~
,
~
;
n
j
jijvi
vvdd
1
~
,
~
(4)
where
jijv
vvd
~
,
~
is the distance measurement bet-ween
two fuzzy numbers
ij
v
~
and
j
v
~
.
3. Compute the closeness coefficient (CC
i
) of each alter-
native:
ii
i
i
dd
d
CC
(5)
4. Rank the alternatives. In step 3, the different alterna-
tives are ranked according to the closeness coefficient
CC
i
in decreasing order. The best alternative is closest
to the FPIS and farthest from the FNIS.
4 Case study
The following is the application of fuzzy AHP and fuzzy
TOPSIS to evaluate the sustainable rural community
tourism in Central Java Province, Indonesia. The methods
were employed based on the aforementioned attributes.
First, the decision makers filled the pairwise comparison
to express their preferences between the alternatives,
attributes, and sub-attributes in a nine-point scale
questionnaire. Their answers were then transformed into
triangular fuzzy numbers.
The results of application of fuzzy AHP and fuzzy
TOPSIS are alternative priority weights (APW) indicated
the important of attributes of sustainable rural community
tourism and the alternatives’ priority referred to each
attribute. The results can be seen in Table 1.
As the result from Table 1, service quality is regarded
as the most important attribute with 28.9%. The next is
management system with 24.4%, facilities with 24.3%,
and the least important is outcome with 22.7%. This
seems that the decision makers viewed the service given
by the tourist destination as the main factors that have to
manage to win a competition among their competitors.
The weights for sub-attributes of service quality are
given as follows. Accessibility (SQ1) is believed to be the
most important with the weight of 0.856, while
convenience (SQ2) is considered the least important with
14.4%. The tourist destination with the best performance
on service quality attribute is Dieng. For facilities
attribute, environment (F3) is considered as the most
important sub- attribute with weight of 34.6%. The next is
accommodation (F1) with 33.8% and the last is subsidiary
facilities (F2) with 31.5%. Sidomukti is believed to be the
best rural tourism in accordance with facilities attribute
by 21.6%.
The third attribute, i.e. management system, the sub-
attribute which is thought to be the most important is
community planning (MS1) with weight of 25.9%.
Tourism business (MS4) and community management
(MS3) are believed to be the second and third most
important with weight of 25.6% and 24.6%. The least
important sub-attribute is collaborated community busi-
ness (MS2) with 24.2%. Dieng is regarded to be the best
rural tourism in line with management system attribute.
The last attribute, i.e. outcome, satisfaction (O1) is
considered as the most important sub-attribute with
weight of 50.9%, and the other sub-attribute, i.e. income
and total sales (O2) has weight of 49.1%. The decision
makers chose Dieng to be the best rural tourism in
performing outcome attribute.
Finally, the sustainable rural community tourism also
were compared using the fuzzy TOPSIS. According to all
the calculations, Dieng is considered as the best site with
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the value of relative approximation value versus ideal
solution is 0.855. The next is Sidomukti with 0.615,
Baturaden with 0.462, Bandungan with 0.456, and the last
is Kopeng with the value of zero.
Table 1. Summary of APW for each attribute.
SQ SQ1 SQ2 APW
Weight 0.856 0.144 0.286
Bandungan 0.200 0.203 0.201
Baturaden 0.201 0.210 0.203
Dieng
0.210 0.198 0.208
Kopeng
0.195 0.180 0.193
Sidomukti
0.193 0.210 0.196
F
F1 F2 F3 APW
Weight
0.338 0.315 0.346
0.243
Bandungan
0.207 0.206 0.178
0.197
Baturaden
0.195 0.202 0.215
0.204
Dieng
0.207 0.200 0.188
0.198
Kopeng
0.196 0.188 0.201
0.195
Sidomukti
0.195 0.204 0.218
0.205
MS
MS1 MS2 MS3 MS4 APW
Weight
0.259 0.242 0.246 0.256
0.244
Bandungan
0.204 0.198 0.206 0.197
0.202
Baturaden
0.198 0.206 0.191 0.181
0.195
Dieng
0.206 0.218 0.208 0.231
0.216
Kopeng
0.191 0.165 0.189 0.185
0.183
Sidomukti
0.201 0.213 0.206 0.205
0.207
O
O1 O2 APW
Weight
0.509 0.491
0.277
Bandungan
0.184 0.202
0.193
Baturaden
0.196 0.207
0.201
Dieng
0.224 0.198
0.211
Kopeng
0.196 0.183
0.190
Sidomukti
0.200 0.209
0.205
5 Conclusion and future research
The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of
sustainable rural community tourism in Central Java
Province, Indonesia, based on aforementioned attributes
and sub-attributes. The result of this study which is
shown in Table 1 is indicated that service quality is consi-
dered as the most important attribute with weight of
28.6 % and the least important attribute is outcome. It
shows that service providers of rural tourism should focus
more on service quality to perform satisfactory service.
The ranking of rural tourism based on calculation is
Dieng for the first rank, Sidomukti for the second,
Baturaden for the third, Bandungan for the fourth, and
Kopeng for the last. It does not mean that Dieng provides
a gorgeous service than the others. In fact, other rural
tourism should improve their service considering with
these attributes. This finding can provide the officers of
the rural tourism with valuable insights into the attribute
that reflects customers’ perceptions about rural tourism;
also to position their services based on their competitors.
There can be other method to evaluate the service of
sustainable rural community tourism. It is highly recom-
mended to utilize the other tools such as analytic network
process [25] when the attributes are assumed correlates
each other. Further research may be the application of
these methods to evaluate other sustainable rural
community tourism. Validating the scale in other site
locations is an interesting area to be pursued.
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