Designing a mathematical model for ecotourism supply chain

In the recent decades, tourism industry has considered as the most important industry and has grown dramatically therefore, the share of international tourism in the global economic activities are continuously increasing. Today, the tourism industry is too important in the economic and social development of a country thus economists call it invisible exports. Ecotourism is a type of tourism in which tourists travel to visit and enjoy the world's undisturbed natural areas and watch plants, birds, fish, and other animals.The objectives of ecotourism are educating and making the ecotourists ready to protect and respect ecosystems and natural resources and to become familiar with diverse cultures, beliefs and human rights. Also ecotourism plays a major role in the economic and political development of local communities. According to the importance of ecotourism, this study presents a mathematical model for ecotourism supply chain. The proposed model is single-objective one which maximizing the chain’s profit. Due to the demand uncertainty, the fuzzy method is used to deal with uncertainty. An applicable numerical example was also presented and the mathematical model was solved by Lingo software and the results were examined.