A decision support system for integrated tourism development: rethinking tourism policies and management strategies

Identifying the most appropriate institutional structures and strategies to integrate the views and coordinate the actions of diverse tourism stakeholders is a key stage in the development of integrated tourism in rural and lagging areas. In this work a Decision Support System (DSS) is developed which combines tools to assist in the analysis of the views, concerns and planned strategies of a wide range of tourism stakeholders in the face of given trends in tourists' expectations. The role and suitability of such an approach is examined in the real situation of three case-study areas in Auvergne (France), umava Mountains (Czech Republic) and Evrytania (Greece). Two major sets of results are discussed. Firstly, there are the impacts of given hypothetical tourism policies developed by simulating the views and strategies of the different tourism stakeholders. Secondly, the paper considers the relative benefits and disadvantages for integrated tourism if collaborative negotiations take place among the different tourism stakeholders. The paper concludes by examining the usefulness of such an approach for tourism planners.