Evaluation and prioritization of Iran's provinces from the perspective of avitourism in wetland destinations

Iran is not comparable to some countries in terms of the total number of endemic bird species, but Iran's ecosystem diversity, influenced by the three major biogeographical regions of the world, can attract birdwatchers from different continents and countries in all seasons. Most bird species in Iran are dependent wetlands, and the development of avitourism in line with the goals of sustainable development can also be effective in protecting wetlands and generating income for the local communiies. The existence of 41 of the 42 types of wetlands identified in the Ramsar Convention, the existence of 105 important bird areas (IBAs) from the 391 places existed in the Middle East and also the 555 different species in Iran, indicate the development capacity of avitourism. The purpose of this study is to measure the tourism capacity of avitourism in the geographical spread of Iran by extracting various factors influencing the selection of avitourism destination, scoring, evaluation and production of zonation maps. The weighting of the destination selection criteria has been done by SWARA method and ranking of destinations with TOPSIS technique. In terms of "species importance", Golestan, Gilan and Mazandaran, Sistan and Baluchistan, Fars, Hormozgan and Khuzestan provinces, in "species diversity" factor, Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Sistan and Baluchistan, Fars, Mazandaran, Golestan and Tehran provinces, in "access to wetland habitats", Tehran, Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan and Bushehr provinces, and lastly in "all the factors influencing the choice of destination", West Azerbaijan and Hormozgan provinces are in the top of rankings.