Identification and Prioritization of Villages with Tourism Attractions in Lahijan County

Rural tourism development can bring opportunities to rural communities such as economic growth, socio-cultural development, quality of life improvement and preservation of natural, cultural and environmental resources. So, identifying talented villages and planning for tourism development in these areas is essential. In this study, villages with tourism attractions in Lahijan County of Guilan province were studied and ranked based on 30 indices in eight general categories using information collected from management and planning organization of Guilan Province in 2018. In order to determine the weights of the understudy indices, the views of 10 experts, were analyzed using analytic hierarchy process and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. Then, in order to prioritize the 10 selected villages of Lahijan County, additive ratio assessment, weighted aggregated sum product assessment and combined compromise solution, were used. The results of the criteria weighting showed that the criteria of natural features of the village and the economic criteria had the highest and the lowest importance, respectively. The results of three ranking methods showed that Sheikhanvar village with the tourism attractions of Sheikh-Zahed Guilani tomb and Sheikhanvar cave ranked first among all other villages. Development of tourism infrastructures in tourism target villages of Lahijan County based on the priority presented in this study can improve the tourism sector's contribution to the economy of Lahijan County.