Tourist hamlet located on the Shore of Zarivar Lake using AHP and GIS techniques

Zarivar Lake in Marivan (Kurdistan Province - Western part of Iran) is one of the most beautiful coastal tourist attractions that catches the attention of so many tourists in four seasons of the year – especially in holidays. Thus, with respect to the touristic significance of this region, we can make fundamental plans to create job opportunities and solve the economic problems of the town. In this regard, locating a suitable site for tourist services, as the tourist village, is one of the most important steps to start the plan with. Choosing a suitable location for a tourist village requires the identification and analysis of a various criteria and indicators. Therefore, in this study, first, the effective criteria and under criteria for the location of a suitable tourist-service site was identified. Because of the different effectiveness of the indicators, 25 tourism experts used the AHP technique for the paired comparison of the components, and calculated the final weight of each of them. Then, according to the criteria and the final weight of the under criteria, the information layers were created in GIS environment, and were also analyzed to select the best site for hamlet tourism in the shores of Zarivar Lake. The results of the combination of the information layers of the three potential sites have been prioritized based on the degree of desirability.