Identification of the Relationship between Tourism Industry Development and Economic Growth of Zanjan Province

Today, tourism industry, as a dynamic industry, has devoted an important part of production activities in the world by its development-oriented features. Hence its development in a country requires factors such as an appropriate strategy, planning and efficient management. In this paper, the status of tourism industry in Zanjan Province has been evaluated using SWOT technique and Input-Output table. The use of expert judgment of “Delphi” is used so that the judgment of the expert group a list of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) influencing the approach taken and the quantification was carried out .Methods of data collection and data analysis are applied and descriptive-analytical. According to the research findings, Zanjan province can become one of the big tourism hubs in the country because of its special geographical location and being between two industrial hubs of Tehran and East. Azerbaijan Provinces. Its strategy is defensive one, and strategies were proposed based on QSPM matrix at the end. Based on research findings in Zanjan province, tourism industry and its related sectors, in terms of linking with other sectors of the economy, can be considered as leading sectors in the economy of Zanjan Province. Therefore, this industry can boost the whole economy of Zanjan by supplying tourism services, demand for enjoying them, and producing tourism goods in other sectors. With regard to these potentials, tourism should be placed on the priority of the province planners in order to exploit them in line with the economy of this province.