Capability Assessment of Mishdagh Protected Area for Ecotourism using PROMETHEE and ANP in GIS Environment

Tourism is a large industry and one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy of every country. Today, tourism also provides an efficient tool to governments for introducing culture of the destinations to other nations. In this study, we identified criteria for tourism and then normalized and prioritized those criteria using PROMETHEE, AHP and ANP methods in Expert Choice and Super Decision software. Each one of the methods provided different ranking based on the nature of their approach. We generated maps of the criteria and overlaid them in GIS for tourism capability assessment. Results of this study indicated that the PROMETHEE method ranked slope as the first, elevation as the second and aspect as the third criterion. The AHP weighting method ranked slope as the first and vegetation density as the second factor, while the ANP ranked slope as the first, vegetation density as the second and aspect as the third. For extensive tourism, 98% of the area has very high capability and 2 % has high capability. For intensive tourism, 62 % of the area has very high capability, 37 % has high capability and the rest 1% has no capability. Our results indicate the high capability of the area for tourism and its potential can best be realized through appropriate planning.