Quantitative assessment of stakeholder perceptions for tourism development

Tourism development has both positive and negative impacts on an economy. Various studies have attempted to capture these impacts using sophisticated quantitative modelling tools such as input-output models or computable general equilibrium models. Other studies have been designed to understand the perceptions of stakeholders. These studies are essentially descriptive and have not applied modelling approaches to capture the perceptions systematically. In this paper, a relatively new modelling approach, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), is used to capture systematically the subjective perceptions of stakeholders about tourism development in the Jebel Akhdar region of the Sultanate of Oman. The results show that respondents generally prefer a huge increase in tourism activity in the region, although they also anticipate some negative impacts.