Abstract
Forest wellness tourism is an emerging form of nature-based tourism that leverages forest ecosystem services for health promotion while contributing to regional sustainable development. Although the integration of Strengths–Weaknesses–Opportunities–Threats (SWOT) analysis and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been applied in tourism planning, their combination with quantitative strategic positioning remains underexplored in the context of forest wellness tourism development in emerging economy mountain regions. This study applies an integrated SWOT-AHP strategic positioning framework to assess the sustainable development of forest wellness tourism in Shangluo City, Qinling Mountains, China. Through multi-round Delphi consultation (n = 46 for factor identification; n = 28 for AHP pairwise comparisons), 18 factors were identified across four SWOT dimensions. AHP weighting revealed that the Strengths dimension received the highest overall weight (dimension weight = 0.3652), with ecological resource quality ranking as the highest-weighted individual factor (composite weight = 0.1175), followed by policy support frameworks (0.0985) and traditional wellness culture (0.0871). Infrastructure deficits constituted the most prominent weakness (composite weight = 0.0647, representing 53.96% of total Weaknesses weight). Four-quadrant strategic positioning yielded coordinates P(0.2454, 0.1706), an intensity coefficient ρ = 0.2989, and an azimuth angle θ = 34.82°, placing Shangluo in Quadrant I (Strengths–Opportunities) and suggesting a competitive strategy that leverages internal advantages to capitalise on external opportunities. Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of this positioning across all tested scenarios (ρ ranging from 0.2632 to 0.3489; Quadrant I maintained throughout). All findings should be interpreted as expert-perceived strategic priorities derived from structured expert judgment, rather than as objectively verified empirical outcomes of actual tourism demand, ecological measurement, or economic impact assessment.The findings provide case-based insights into how ecological resource endowment and institutional capacity are perceived by domain experts to jointly shape tourism development priorities in China’s western mountain regions, and illustrate one contextually grounded approach to reconciling economic development with ecological conservation in comparable mountain destination contexts.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the 46 experts who participated in the Delphi consultation process and the 28 specialists who completed AHP pairwise comparisons for their valuable time and professional insights. We acknowledge the Shangluo Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism for facilitating field research access and providing regional statistical data. We are grateful to the Qinling Ecological Research Station for environmental monitoring data. We thank Dr. [Name] for assistance with GIS mapping and spatial analysis, and [Name] for professional English language editing services. Special thanks to colleagues at the School of Architecture, Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology, for constructive feedback during manuscript development.
Funding
This research was funded by the National Social Science Fund of China, grant number 21XJY01, and the Science and Technology Bureau soft science research project of Shangluo City, grant number 23SKJRK002.
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Informed consent was obtained from all expert participants involved in this study. Prior to participation, all experts were provided with comprehensive information about the research purpose, procedures, time commitment, confidentiality protections, and their right to withdraw. Written consent was obtained from all participants. All responses were anonymized, and only aggregated data are reported.
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This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology (Protocol #2023-HM-089, approval date: 15 June 2023).
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Liu, L., Zhou, E. & Heydari, M. An integrated SWOT-AHP strategic positioning framework for assessing sustainable forest wellness tourism development in mountain regions.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-60242-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-60242-1
Keywords
- Forest wellness tourism
- Sustainable development
- SWOT-AHP
- Strategic planning
- Mountain tourism
- Emerging economies
- China
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