ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Delphi-Based Strategic Planning for Tourism
Management – a Case Study
Seyed Masoud Monavari, Nematollah Khorasani,
Seyedeh Shahnaz Ghazi Mirsaeed
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Department of Environmental Science, Graduate Faculty of the Environment and Energy,
Science and Research branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2013;22(2):465-473
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Tourism is one of the most dynamic economic activities that currently plays an important role in local
sustainable development. The industry, through the combined and simultaneous use of both internal and external
resources, presents plenty of social, economic, environmental, and cultural benefits. Hence, it is considered
a primary option in the development process. Unfortunately, despite the high potential for tourism development
in Iran, the relevant experts believe that it has not developed as appropriate. Lack of a comprehensive
approach to managing available strengths and opportunities in order to overcome threats and weaknesses
seems to be the main challenge toward achieving sustainable tourism in the country. Accordingly, the current
study focuses on presenting an integrated strategic plan for tourism management in a recreation destination
near Tehran. Due to the participatory nature of the managerial affairs, to minimize the bias through weighing
criteria and finalize the potential offered strategies, an integrated approach that combines analytic hierarchy
process (AHP) and strengths, weaknesses/limitations, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) called the SWOTAHP
Hybrid Method was applied. Afterward, a quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM) was used to
prioritize the suggested strategies. The obtained results indicated that giving priority to tourism projects in the
river borders is the foremost priority to rehabilitate tourism activities in a sustainable manner.