An integrated SWOT-AHP strategic positioning framework for assessing sustainable forest wellness tourism development...

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.