A hybrid meta-heuristic approach to design a Bi-objective cosmetic tourism supply chain: A case study

In recent decades, medical tourism especially cosmetic tourism has increased in many countries. In this study, a bi-objective mathematical model is designed for the cosmetic tourism supply chain for the first time. In the first objective function, the profit margin in the supply chain is maximized. In contrast, the distance between the medical and accommodation centers is minimized in the second objective function. The general revised multi choice goal programming (GRMCGP) method is an exact method for optimizing the problem. To solve the problem, model is run by Lingo software. Then, a new hybrid genetic algorithm named genetic algorithm-general revised multi-choice goal programming (GA-GRMCGP), to solve large-scale instances, is utilized. Moreover, a case study is considered to validate the proposed mathematical model. Furthermore, sensitivity analyses are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the research. Finally, the results of the exact and meta-heuristic algorithms are compared and discussed.