Strateegic Planning forTourism DDevelopmentinnthe BorderProvincces Using SWOOTTechnique (Case Studyy: Kurdistan PProvince)

Due to the role of tourism industry many of today's planners and policy makers in development, it is considered as a fundamental pillar of sustainable development.Tourism plays a major role in the national economy and identifying weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities of tourism are supposed to be the keys of development. The research method in this study is descriptive - analytical based on a questionnaire.The purpose of this study was to evaluate the tourism conditions in Kurdistan province according to the touristic capabilities in tourism, environmental, historical, cultural and humanistic areas.In this paper, using SWOT model, the weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities facing the Kurdistan Province were identified and weighed and the effective factors in determining the proper strategy for development of tourism are discussed and the tourism strategies of the province are presented. The obtained analyses show that despite the vast potential of tourism in Kurdistan province the weakness and instability in management, weakness in advertising, in coordination between the relevant organizations in the field of tourism, lack of touristic infrastructure, lack of financial resources and equipment needed to develop tourism industry, barriers of education and lack of expertise, lack off appropriate transportation and poor roads are major obstacles that impede the development of tourism in Kurdistan province. Finally, some guidelines are presented for tourism development planning that could be helpful.