Application of hybrid SWOT-AHP-FuzzyAHP model for formulation and prioritization of ecotourism strategies in Western Himalaya, India

Abstract

Ecotourism is considered as a tool for sustainability and it is a sustainable approach to balance economic, social, cultural and environmental aspects for development. The application of ecotourism concept at ground level needs to develop strategies based on local natural and cultural resources and sustainability principles. Thus, the strategies were formulated in this study based on the principle of ecotourism and sustainability. The present study explores the application of strength-weakness-opportunity-threat (SWOT) based analysis for ecotourism planning strategies formulation in Kullu district, Himachal Pradesh, India. The internal factors (strength and weakness) and external factors (opportunity and threat) were diagnosed systematically and comprehensively to prepare TOWS matrix and it contains four group strategies, strength-opportunity (SO), weakness-opportunity (WO), strength-threat (ST) and weakness-threat (WT) and 30 sub-strategies. Out of total developed strategies, seven SO, eight WO, eight ST and seven WT strategies has been adopted for ecotourism development in the study area. The adopted strategies further analyzed using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and Fuzzy AHP to identify the hierarchical best priority strategies for ecotourism development. SWOT-AHP and SWOT-Fuzzy AHP methods were ensemble together to obtain the best priority strategies. Hence, the implementation of these strategies in the study area should help to achieve regional sustainable development goal.