Tourism positioning using decision support system (case study: Chahnime-Zabol, Iran)

In recent decades, social-economic growth and developments have led to human communities toward the creation of tourism opportunities, which are likely to be considered as ways of spending leisure and reducing the impacts of tensions resulting from a rigorous urban and industrial life. Of the variety of regions in Iran, the southeastern regions may be considered as one of the tourism spots in Iran and Zabol, with the ruins of Burnt City having an ancient civilization, a freshwater lake called Hamoon Lake and people with a rich Aryan culture playing a significant role in providing the desired ecotourism. In spite of its importance, specific studies have not been conducted for development and planning of suitable tourism areas. Therefore, the current research has zoned the regions through multi-criteria evaluation using ecological criteria and few social-economic factors. Applied criteria in this paper include soil, distance to surface water resources, slope, aspect, geological formation sustainability, vegetation and distances and limits, including distances from ponds, surface water resources, roads, political borders, rural and urban residential areas, historical centers and welfare facilities. Criterion standardization was done by means of fuzzy theory and the map of constraints was prepared through Boolean theory. To weigh the criteria, pairwise comparisons were performed in the form of the analytic hierarchy process. Then, the given weights were linearly combined and the layers mixed and the suitability index of lands was calculated. In this area, seven zones were identified for advanced tourism.