The Specification and Ranking of Tourism Development Strategies in Shiraz City by Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP)

The present research aims to specify weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats, and then set tourism industry development strategies and rank them at the end. Therefore, to accomplish these tasks, SWOT and Fuzzy Analytical Network Process (FANP) were used. FANP let the measurement when there is a correlation among strategic factors. The presented network model in this research, in order to analyze SWOT, has four levels:objective (the best strategy) in level one, SWOT factors and the subcategories of SWOT, respectively in levels two and three, and finally in the last level the strategic choices. To determine the weight of the SWOT factors, a questionnaire based on the FANP, which consists of binary comparisons, was designed and it was distributed among some of the experts in the field of tourism in Shiraz, to be filled out. Then the gathered data were analyzed by FANP software, and the SO strategies as the best strategies were chosen to develop the tourism industry in Shiraz. The emphasis of the SO strategies are on this point that the organization endeavors to benefit from the opportunities in the external environment based on the strengths in the internal environment. Based on these strategies, structural and strategic designs for tourism industry should be prepared, ecotourism development should be emphasized and the governmental agencies should invest for the reconstruction of tourism development elements. By implementation of these strategies, we could observe dynamic changes, and sustainable development in tourism functions in shiraz.