**4. Conclusions**

This research paper began by discussing the importance of the tourism sector in the economy, as well as the need to develop competitiveness in tourist destinations. An analysis from the perspective of two expert groups (decision makers from the tourism sector and academics/researchers) regarding the relationship between the causes and effects of tourism competitiveness using fuzzy techniques was presented, such as the Theory of Expertons, the Theory of Forgotten Effects and the Hamming distance between expertons.

The Theory of Expertons enabled us to group all of the experts' opinions of each group into a single group result. The Forgotten Effects Theory helped to identify, for each group of experts, the variables and relationships that remained hidden or whose impact was indirect on cause–effect relationships. Finally, the Hamming distance between experts helped to detect differences of opinion between the perspective of a group of decision makers in the tourism sector versus the perspective of a group of academics/researchers regarding the relationship between the causes and effects of tourism competitiveness.

The results obtained showed that the experts' perspectives regarding the cause–effect relationship have a distance that ranges from 0.00 to 0.19, with the value of 0.19 being the one corresponding to the relationship of Environmental Commitment (cause) and Tourist Demand (effect). Regarding the cause–cause relationship, a distance was found in a range of 0.00 to 0.26, with the value of 0.26 referring to the General Infrastructure and Location relationship. Regarding the effect–effect relationship, the resulting distance ranges from 0.00 to 0.25, which corresponds to the relationship between Customer Loyalty and Sustainable Development. Finally, the distances found in the Forgotten Effects fluctuate between 0.00 and 0.33, with the value of 0.33 present in the Environmental Commitment (cause) and Customer Satisfaction (effect) relationship. In all of the aforementioned relationships, academic experts gave the highest evaluation.

According to the experience of the group of academics/researchers, Environmental Commitment (cause) has a significant impact on Tourism Demand (effect) and on Customer Satisfaction (effect). When applying Forgotten Effects on these relationships, zero values were obtained, which indicates that academics/researchers have clearly defined these cause–effect relationships. On the other hand, decision makers in the tourism sector have a Forgotten Effects value of 0.23 in the Environmental Commitment–Tourism Demand relationship and the Forgotten Effects in the Environmental Commitment–Customer Satisfaction relationship is 0.33. In both cases, decision makers omitted the indirect impact that causes sustainable development. In the aforementioned cause–effect relationship, decision makers in the tourism sector do not share the same perspective as academics/researchers.

In most cases, decision makers in the tourism sector share the same perspective as academics regarding the relationship between the different causes and effects of tourism competitiveness. However, they are ignoring the growing inclination and sensitivity that the tourist is adopting towards the environment. The tourism sector must adopt an attitude of responsibility, protection and respect for the environment, pay special attention to the implementation of actions that minimize the environmental impact that the activity itself causes, in addition to joining the programs that are present in each tourist destination that pursue a sustainable use of resources. It is necessary for the tourism sector to develop and consolidate its commitment to caring for and preserving the environment, which is an element that contributes to the competitiveness of the destination and has two main effects: tourism demand and customer satisfaction.

With the results of this work, the tourism sector can benefit from knowing the elements of a destination, which beyond the attractiveness itself, today interest the tourist and to whom they must direct their actions based on the effect(s) they want to achieve. On the other hand, the benefit for academics/researchers is that based on these results, new works and lines of research are made visible that allow for finding a way to support the business sector to understand the changes that are experienced in the tourist environment and in the interest of the tourist. A joint work between academics/researchers and the tourism sector could close the perception gaps that exist and generate results for both.

The results of this research are a starting point for future research and for companies that are part of the tourism sector to make decisions and take actions that contribute to making the tourist destination a competitive place. Future lines of research could address the reasons that limit decision makers in the tourism sector to develop an environmental commitment. On the other hand, it would be worth expanding the studies on the subject by using other tools such as the Pichart algorithm and different distance measures, as well as including interval values, in order to support the results obtained. One of the limitations of this study lies in the number of experts that made up each group, as to identify a pattern of behavior or opinion more easily, a larger group is required in terms of quantity and in terms of the role played in tourism.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology, Formal Analysis, Writing— Original Draft, Preparation and Writing—Review & Editing, M.B.F.-R., M.E.P.-R., J. Á.-G., and M.d.l.C.d.R.-R. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors are also very grateful to the anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions which have considerably improved this paper.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
