Hamideh Beigi
Abstract
Introduction: Guilan Province, Iran, owning the advantages of tourism based on its nature, has the potential to develop healthy ecologies. This study endeavored to identify and introduce the suitable areas of these resorts in Guilan.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, a pairwise comparison ...
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Introduction: Guilan Province, Iran, owning the advantages of tourism based on its nature, has the potential to develop healthy ecologies. This study endeavored to identify and introduce the suitable areas of these resorts in Guilan.Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study, a pairwise comparison questionnaire was developed and administered to 15 nature specialists, owners of ecotourism resorts, tour guides, and nature guides, as well as tourism professors who were selected using purposeful accessible sampling method. To prioritize susceptible areas, VIKOR model was employed.Results: As a result of examining environmental indicators and based on the overlapping of output maps in Geographic Information System (GIS) environment, 18 potential zones were identified in Guilan and using VIKOR model, prioritization of identified zones was done to develop studies and planning of these tourist destinations. Zone No. 9, located in the geographical area of Rasht City with the least distance from the ideal solution (0.054), zone No. 6, in the geographical area of Parhosar and Rezvanshahr with a numerical score of 0.059, and zone No. 11 in the geographical area of Siahkal and Lahijan with a score of 0.064, were in the first to third priorities of planning and development of health ecologies, respectively.Conclusion: Capitalizing on areas prone to construction and sustainable development of health ecologies in Guilan Province has differentiated the province's tourism market, and can foster a new competitive advantage in the tourism sector.
