The selection model for horizontal alliances between hotels and airlines: an integrated application of NGT, fuzzy TOPSIS and MCGP methods Yan-Kai Fu, Weilun Huang and Chin-Nung Liao Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the hotel selection problem of airlines for their hotel and airline alliance (HAA) to develop potential customers of airlines. This paper will propose a hybrid mathematics evaluation model to help airline to select an optimal hotel with both qualitative and quantitative criteria. Design/methodology/approach – To solve the hotel selection problem of airlines for their HAA, this paper focuses on the implementation of the NGT, Fuzzy TOPSIS and MCGP models in the hotel selection process. Initially, the NGT was used to create HAA decision-making criteria based on the literature review and expert opinions, and it was found that scale and scope possibility, brand value, tourism attraction, operating cost and industrial conditions are the most important criteria. Later, the Fuzzy TOPSIS method was used to obtain the general normalized fuzzy preference and to compute the closeness coefficients of each alternative hotel with respect to each criterion. Third, five tangible constraints were incorporated into the Fuzzy TOPSIS-MCGP model to calculate the optimal hotel with LINGO software. Findings – Airline managers can use the proposed model to form a clear view of how to choose the most suitable hotel to cooperate with to outperform their competitors. Having access to this information allows airline managers to take steps to perform better and improve the performance of the partnership, helping them to gain more confidence in their decision-making capabilities while reducing investment risks. Originality/value – This is the first paper that has adopted Fuzzy TOPSIS-MCGP to select hotel for their HAA from the airline’s point of view. The major contributions of this study are as follows: an efficient and simple evaluation framework is proposed for handling vagueness and uncertainty in real-world hotel selection problems; the advancement of treating uncertainty in the MCDM process; the fuzzy TOPSIS- MCGP method is extended for such problems, taking into account tangible and intangible criteria; airline managers can now make decisions in choosing to select the best hotel for their HAA that meets the airline’s business goals and passenger demands; hotel operators are flexible in selecting their airline partnership, thus creating greater profit for both parties. Keywords Hotel, Airline, Nominal group technique (NGT), Technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS), Multiple choice goal programming (MCGP), Horizontal alliance Paper type Research paper 饭店和航空公司之间横向联盟的选择模型：NGT, fuzzy TOPSIS和MCGP方法的综合应用 目的 : 本文的主要目的是在协助驾驶评估酒店选择的问题, 并通过由酒店与航空公司的合作联盟HAA, 开 发整合的潜在客户。评估模型, 以帮助航空公司选择同时满足定性和定量标准的最佳酒店。 设计/方法/方法 : 这些研究集中在规模和范围的可能性, 品牌价值, 旅游吸引上力, 运营成本和产业条件 上。第二个步骤是日期近似近似最佳解排序技术（fuzzy TOPSIS）计算每家替代酒店与理想解决方案的 接近度系数。规划方法（MCGP）选择最佳酒店, 同时选择方法同时考虑酒店的定性和定量标准, 并且从 未在酒店选择文献中被采用过。 结果 : 为了帮助评估评估合适的酒店和建立合作联盟, 因此本文提出了NGT-Fuzzy TOPSIS-MCGP模型, 以帮助决策的决策者实现替代的酒店。在此模型中, 决策者通过最后, 在名目人群技术（NGT）确定客观 Yan-Kai Fu is based at the Department of Aviation Services and Management, China University of Science and Technology, Hsinchu, Taiwan. Weilun Huang is based at the School of Finance, Wenzhou Business College, Wenzhou City, China. Chin-Nung Liao is based at the Department of Business Administration, China University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan. Received 7 June 2019 Revised 6 August 2019 9 September 2019 Accepted 9 September 2019 DOI 10.1108/TR-06-2019-0214 © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1660-5373 j TOURISM REVIEW j