Sustainable development of cultural industry in Shaanxi Province of Northwest China: A SWOT and AHP analysis

Abstract

The culture and landscape of Shaanxi Province are representative of Northwest China. Despite the current prosperity of tourism, the issue of sustainable development of cultural industry in Shaanxi Province is emerging increasingly. We analyzed the challenges and prospects for cultural industry in Shaanxi Province using the SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) approach, in combination with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). We used preferential data from local experts who have an extensive and diverse understanding of cultural industry of Shaanxi Province. The results reveal that strengths and opportunities for cultural industry in Shaanxi Province outweigh its weaknesses and threats. The experts believed that the abundant resources in landscape and history are the major strength, and the huge demand in the Chinese market is the important opportunity. While the lag in social concept and governmental execution is identified as a weakness for the development of cultural industry, Western cultural impact and domestic/intra-regional competitions are considered to be the critical threats. The quantitative analysis of the strategies indicates the strength/opportunity strategy is the optimal one for the sustainable development of Shaanxi's cultural industry.