Decision support system for tourism development: System dynamics approach

A natural resource-based tourism decision support system (NRBTDSS) has been developed to simulate visitor dynamics in response to different environmental changes and investment policy scenarios. NRBTDSS is a system dynamics based interactive decision support system. It is designed in Powersim program and contains 5 sectors of natural resource based tourism regional system information, which are interlined. The model predicts visitor dynamics and economic income. NRBTDSS is interactive and easy to use; it is also a useful tool for both research and education. This paper introduces the methods of tourism decision support system development, presents the decision model structure, demonstrates a sample simulation using the system, and discusses the validation and utilities of the system as well as means to expand the system in the future.