Prioritizing of Fars province playas for desert ecotourism development using GIS technique and topsis method

Fars province is regarded as one of the important poles of tourism in Iran, because it has enormous potential in terms of natural, historical and cultural attractions. Such cases can be noted in arid areas and deserts and can have very high potential in attracting tourists. In this research, with an emphasis on the desert areas of tourism, the tourism potential in three playas: Shiraz, Neyriz, Meydane Gel were evaluated using both tourists, expert, and data knowledge comparitively. Thus, first, in order to investigate the potential of the three playas, questionnaires from the perspective of tourists and experts were used, and ArcGIS software was used for preparation of layers in data knowledge. Then, TOPSIS model was used to rank the deserts in the form of three scenarios. The results showed that in all three scenarios, Shiraz desert with an average score of 0.95 was ranked first, and then Neyriz deserts and Meydane gel with mean of 0.71 and 0.14 were prioritized in the second and third orders. Therefore, in the development of ecotourism desert in Fars province, Shiraz desert has the highest priority which is prone to develop ecotourism desert.