Nasser Moharramnejad, Mohammad-Taqi Rahnamai and Mazdak Dorbeiki
In today’s world, sustainable tourism as an important economic activity plays a critical role in management of protected areas. Strategic management and planning can help long-term plans of sustainable tourism in Iranian national parks. In the present study, SWOT method was used to develop appropriate strategies for sustainable tourism management in Golestan National Park, Iran. Using IFE and EFE matrices, 26 factors of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats were identified in sustainable tourism management system. The most important of factors were rich attractions of the park, national park and Biosphere Reserve laws, lack of a master plan, low level of public participation, scientific projects, low interdisciplinary cooperation, risk of natural disasters, and low budget. Using these factors, 17 strategies were developed in four groups called SO, ST, WO, and WT. The resulted strategies have a close relationship with each other and their efficiency should be assessed periodically. Obviously tourism trends in Golestan National Park will be changed in the future and it urges for development of new strategies for sustainable tourism in the next years.
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