Abstract: Red tourism plays an important role in national cultural identity. It is of great significance for the development of China’s red tourism to formulate long-term development strategies from a strategic perspective. Taking Yan’an City as an example, based on the questionnaire data from experts, the research on the development of red tourism was carried out by adopting SWOT-AHP model. The results showed that the development of red tourism in Yan’an City should give priority to the pioneering driven strategy, and the strategic intensity coefficient ρ=0.974>0.5, so it was advisable to take positive pioneering strategic measures; its development should rely on advantages, take advantage of opportunities, and choose “S（advantage）-O（opportunity）-T1（homogeneous and vicious competition, threat）”development paths, which was the core strategy for the development of red tourism industry of Yan’an. It was suggested that the development of the red tourism in Yan’an should give full play to the advantages of resources and location, strengthen publicity efforts, keep close to the industrial public policy, and maintain the strategy drive; clear development orientation, make overall planning, formulate differentiated development routes, stagger development, and reduce strategy risks to realize the sustainable development of red tourism in Yan’an.

Key words: red tourism, SWOT-AHP model, strategic decision, Yan'an City