Tourism Development Strategies Preparation with National Security Approach in Central and Eastern Provinces of Iran

Tourism prosperity and development depend on security. Without security, tourism development will not take place and there is a direct and intimate relationship between these two concepts. Accordingly, the purpose of the present research is tourism development strategies preparation with national security approach in central and eastern provinces of Iran.

This research is a developmental one based on strategic planning method. The statistical population of the study has included experts in tourism, land planning, security, futures research, strategic planning, sociology, criminology and geography of Tehran universities: TarbiatModares, ShahidBeheshti and cultural heritage, tourism and handicrafts organizations. Thirty experts were selected based on the snowball method. SWOT method and QSPM quantitative matrix were used for data analysis.

Leisure facilities establishment, equipment and places with the security perspective and the necessary platforms for tourism development with score of 0.18 has the highest score among the strengths. There is a lower score of 0.11 for cultural and historical tourism. Among the weaknesses, the problem of necessary funds attraction, region anonymity and the weakness in better information with the score of 0.09 was the highest score.Among the points of opportunity, attraction of private sector capital in the tourism field, presence of area young manpower and defensive attention according to the characteristics of the same area with score of 0.21 was the highest score. Among threat points, environment destruction by tourist’s neglect and natural attractions loss with a score of 0.11 has the highest score.

According to the SWOT matrix, the position of tourism development with the national security approach in the provinces under study falls under the diversity strategies (ST).