Sustainable tourism is a necessity to preserve natural habitats, thus presenting a vital part of achieving sustainable development. This work aims to address a business decision problem related to the conservation of natural resources and the protection of habitats through waste management and IT applications in the hotel sector in Serbia. Tourism in Serbia presents a sensitive issue regarding the balance between the economy and ecology. Thus, the multi-criteria optimisation method of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), can help to tackle this problem. To achieve this goal, a hierarchical model was developed that considers nine criteria and four alternatives. The alternatives considered are: service user satisfaction, service cost, waste minimisation, and service quality. The developed model was analysed to select the best alternative using AHP and TOPSIS as a hybrid approach. The analysis shows that (environmental) waste prevention ranks first among all considered alternatives and plays an important role in the development of sustainable tourism in Serbia.

Sustainable tourism is essential for preserving natural habitats and represents a vital component of sustainable development. This study addresses a business decision-making problem related to natural resource conservation and habitat protection through waste management and IT applications in the Serbian hotel sector. Tourism in Serbia and the Western Balkans represents a sensitive issue concerning the balance between economic development and environmental protection. Therefore, the multi-criteria optimization methods Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) are applied to address this problem. To achieve this goal, a hierarchical model was developed that considers nine criteria and four alternatives. The alternatives considered are: service user satisfaction, service cost, waste minimization, and service quality. The developed model was analyzed using a hybrid AHP–TOPSIS approach to identify the optimal alternative. The results indicate that environmental waste prevention ranks highest among all considered alternatives and plays a significant role in the development of sustainable tourism in Serbia.