The use of the Internet to develop new technologies has generated a considerable change in teaching and student learning in higher education. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has forced universities to switch from face-to-face to online instruction. Furthermore, this transfer process was planned and executed quickly, with urgent redesigns of courses originally conceived for live teaching. The aim of this work is to measure the service quality of online teaching delivered during the COVID-19 period. The methodology was based on an importance-performance analysis using a structural equations model. The data were obtained from a sample of 467 students attending a university in southern Spain. The results reveal five priority attributes of online teaching that need to be improved in order to enhance the service quality of the virtual instruction provided to students. Universities need to redefine their online format by integrating methodological and technological decisions and involving collaboration between teachers, students and administration staff and services. The results do not apply to educational institutions that exclusively teach courses online, but to those institutions that had to rapidly adapt, and shift course material originally designed for face-to-face training.

The aim of this research consists of measuring the sustainability degree for tourism destinations considering the stakeholder's preferences. Their opinions were included in the overall process during the choice of the initial indicators and determining the weights. Additionally, in the aggregation process, a sustainability index was calculated with a multiple criteria decision theory methodology, according to its ability to embrace the participant opinions in the decision-making process. Results allows determining the sustainability degree and the identification of strengths and weaknesses in terms of goals attainment. To corroborate the robustness of the index, an analysis of the rankings was performed.

Tourism sustainability evaluation has become an important issue in the development of this economic industry due to its dependence on natural environment quality and social acceptance. The study shows different ways to measure sustainability by means of composite indicators obtained from an initial set of quantitative and qualitative information. The use of different aggregation methods makes it possible to create rankings and offers remarkable contributions to the decision making process. We use the combination of dissimilar algorithms such as DP₂ distance, Data Envelopment Analysis, Principal Component Analysis and Goal Programming to achieve these rankings and Borda Count to merge them into a single order to compare these destinations. Results shows different ways to measure sustainability using the overall information contained in a set of initial indicators and represent an important contribution to composite indicator’s building and for the formulation of new strategic actions, politics or other territorial or national projections.

This study aims to present diverse proposals for the measurement of tourism destination competitiveness that serve as alternatives to the travel and tourism competitiveness index (TTCI). The proposal includes principal component analysis, the DP2-distance method, goal programming, data envelopment analysis and the Borda count. The study evaluates 17 destinations from Central America and the Caribbean. These include the feasibility that the methodologies provide reliable competitiveness rankings and the possibility of using less information due to the strength of the statistical methodologies. International tourist arrivals, income from international tourism and travel and tourism contribution to the gross domestic product could be used as approximations of tourism destination competitiveness. The main limitation is the absence of major destinations from the region that constitutes fierce competitors. New aggregation methods can build composite indicators for competitiveness measurement and their presentation in a more comprehensible way. The results serve as an alternative for countries that have yet to be considered in international tourism competitiveness comparisons. A better explanatory power of the proposed index is given, thanks to their decomposition capacity and the reduction of the limitations of the original TTCI. Moreover, the proposals facilitate the inclusion of external information or the execution of a completely objective methodology. 本研究旨在为衡量旅游目的地竞争力提出多样化的建议, 并作为旅行和旅游竞争力指数的替代方案。 该提案包括主成分分析、DP₂ 距离方法、目标规划、数据包络分析和 Borda 计数。 该研究评估了中美洲和加勒比地区的 17 个目的地。 结果包括这些方法提供可靠的竞争力排名的可行性, 以及由于统计方法的优势而使用较少信息的可能性。 国际旅游人数、国际旅游收入以及旅行和旅游对 GDP 的贡献可以用作旅游目的地竞争力的近似值。 主要局限是该地区没有竞争激烈的主要目的地。 新的聚合方法可以为竞争力测量建立综合指标, 并以更易于理解的方式呈现。 结果可作为国际旅游竞争力比较中, 衡量尚未考虑国家的替代方案。 由于其分解能力和原始 TTCI 限制的减少, 所提出的指数具有更好的解释力。 此外, 这些建议有助于纳入外部信息及执行完全客观的方法。 El presente estudio busca presentar diversas metodologías para medir la competitividad de los destinos turísticos, de modo que sirvan como alternativa al Índice de Competitividad de Viajes y Turismo. La propuesta incluye Análisis de Componentes Principales, el método de distancia DP₂, Programación por Metas, Análisis Envolvente de Datos y el Recuento de Borda. Se analizan 17 destinos de Centro América y el Caribe. Estos incluyen la validez de las metodologías para obtener rankings de competitividad fiables y la posibilidad de emplear menor cantidad de información, dadas las fortalezas de los procedimientos estadísticos propuestos. Las Llegadas de Turistas Internacionales, los Ingresos por Turismo Internacional, y la Contribución del Turismo al PIB podrían ser buenas aproximaciones para medir competitividad turística La principal limitación es la ausencia de destinos importantes de la región, que se consideran importantes competidores. Novedosos procedimientos de agregación para crear indicadores sintéticos para medir la competitividad turística y su presentación de un modo más comprensible. Los resultados sirven como alternativa para otros destinos que aún no han sido considerados en comparaciones internacionales de competitividad turística. Un mejor poder explicativo de los índices propuestos, gracias a su capacidad de descomposición, y la reducción de las limitaciones del índice del WEF. Además, las propuestas facilitan la inclusión de información externa o la ejecución de un método completamente objetivo.