BUSINESS MANAGEMENT JOURNAL

              The aim of this research is to explore the role of Analytical Hierarchy Process method in prioritizing three alternative tourism development areas, namely Likupang, Morotai Island, and Tanjung Kelayang. These three alternatives were selected from 10 Priority Tourism Destinations established by the Indonesia Ministry of Tourism. There are three criteria used as considerations in prioritizing the three alternative tourism areas, they are: Economic Benefits, Availability of Infrastructure, Tourist Destination Attractions, Social and Environmental Issues. These criteria were selected based on various previous research results. Meanwhile, the information regarding each criteria was obtained from the Ministry of Tourism. Furthermore, to increase objectivity, relative weights among criteria is obtained through questionnaire to eight respondents whose background are practitioner and academician. All information was processed into the Original Matrix and Adjusted Matrix with relative assessment weights based on the questionnaire results. After that, the Consistency Ratio was calculated, which result is less than 0,1. The calculation results indicate that Likupang become the first priority as a location for tourism area development. However, this research recommend that other locations should be developed as well but with a lower priority, considering that the economic benefits of tourism for Likupang are still less than that of the other two alternative areas. 

Keywords:  Analytical Hierarchy Process, Tourism Area Development, Location Alternatives, Criteria to Select Alternatives.