Strategic planning of ecotourism development based on capacities and challenges (Case Study: The County of Mahabad)

Today, tourism is considered to be one of the largest economic sectors in many countries. The development of the tourism industry, particularly for developing countries which face problems such as high unemployment, limited foreign exchange resources and single-product economy, is of a great importance. According to this the goals of this research is on one hand to identify priorities of tourism attractions, tourist satisfaction, infrastructures, facilities and services of the County, measuring the effects of natural attractions in the development of the County, and on the other hand is to identify tourism development strategies based on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats applied in SWOT model.

Material and Methodology:

 The methodology of this study based on the goal is to be functional and the method is descriptive-analytical. With that in mind, in Order to achieve the objectives of the research with the aim of library and field studies, then using a questionnaire and a survey the tourists and experts, necessary information is collected and then in SPSS and Excel Software, Statistical analysis was performed on data.

The total score of strengths and weaknesses was 2.3 and the total score of opportunities and threats was 2.46, so the findings, based on studies in the County of Mahabad show that based on the matrix of internal and external influential factors, the weaknesses overcome the strengths and threats overcome the opportunities.

For the development of tourism in the County of Mahabad, we believe there is a strong need for comprehensive planning of maximum use of the strengths, enhance opportunities and dealing with threats. Therefore, in this study we have taken a step forward in this direction so that ultimately the matrix of the solutions and strategies of development of Mahabad’s tourism are prepared.