Tourism Strategic planning of Kurdistan province based on the regional competitiveness using meta-swot technique

Globalization has basically transformed the world into a competitive market in which most companies seek to choose the appropriate economic policies and identify effective strategies to meet the emerging competitive environment, and the new challenges posed in this global competitive environment. In fact, today, tourism has become one of the most important competitive bases and competitive areas in the world in a way that each country and city is seeking a better position in this profitable and competitive area. Currently, most planners are seeking to use appropriate methods and strategies for long-term successful planning in this field, so that they can increase their success rate in tourist attraction due to the relative importance of human affairs. In the meantime, strategic planning is one of the most appropriate scientific methods for determining the weaknesses and strengths of the environment, identifying the most important sources of each region, as well as determining the most important macro-factors affecting the region. Indeed, in this type of planning, we can determine a specific program in the scientific framework for tourism in Kurdistan by identifying the set of factors mentioned above. Therefore, in the present study, we seek to achieve the following goals using the Meta-SWOT technique: identifying the most important tourism opportunities in Kurdistan, the major factors affecting tourism in Kurdistan, and the competition situation of the province with neighboring provinces until 2025. In order to achieve these goals, the required data was collected by experts from the Kurdistan Tourism Development Document. The sample includes 25 experts and researchers related to the research topic. In addition to Kurdistan province, the selected sample includes the neighboring and rival provinces. Research findings were analyzed in two steps. In the first step, tourism competition map of Kurdistan with neighboring provinces was drawn. In the second step, the tourism proportion strategic map of Kurdistan was presented considering the resources and capabilities of the province as well as the major factors affecting tourism in Kurdistan. The results of this research, drawn from the competitive map, indicate that the status of tourism in Kurdistan will be in a competitive position compared to its rivals, namely Kermanshah, Hamedan, and Azerbaijan provinces in terms of attracting foreign tourists in the target year. In order to achieve this goal in the vision document, resources and capabilities that were identified by experts to have the highest scores should be strengthened and considered as strong and forward-looking strategies. In the strategic proportion map, the results show that ecotourism and border markets have the highest level of strategic alignment with environmental factors, and, in the regional competitiveness debate, they are the most important potential of Kurdistan for taking up tourism market in the region. Also, the historical record of the province and the existence of suitable infrastructure for tourism have the highest level of strategic alignment with the goals set out in the Tourism Document of Kurdistan. Also, the most important factors affecting the development of Kurdistan tourism are the country’s macro-management, international sanctions and foreign policy of the state. Therefore, political stability in the country will improve the situation of Kurdistan in attracting foreign tourists.