tourism , today as one of the ways to make money, create jobs , and social and political interactions is considered. this paper aims to examine the strengths and weaknesses of tourism development in mahmoud abad ( mazandaran ). the research method in this study is " descriptive - analytical " and to collection of data used field methods such as questionnaires and documentation - library. the sample community used in this study , 314 households in the mahmoudabad and 314 tourists and the local staff . swot technique is used to analyze the data. the results show that tourism in the county have 11 internal strengths and 11 internal weaknesses points, and 8 external opportunities and 11 external threat points. the beautiful beach and easy access to the county are main strengths, and inappropriability physical infrastructure and lack of trained personels are the major weaknesses of tourism in this region. with the final score obtained from internal factors ( 2/66 ) and external factors ( 3/29 ) aggressive strategy , the best strategy was diagnosed.