A Comparative Study of Dimensions of Animal Ecotourism from the Perspective of Tourism Marketers and Environmental Experts (Case of Alvand Khomein Protected Area)

Every year, more and more people are eager for nature tourism, especially the animal environment in the world, so that nature tourism is known as one of the main areas of tourism. The prerequisite for entering animal ecotourism is to understand the fundamental challenges in this area. On the one hand, countless tourists count the time to attend animal ecotourism, and on the other hand, environmentalists do not consider animal ecotourism to be in the best interest of a protected area. This study aims to investigate the attitudes of tourism marketers and environmental experts towards the dimensions of animal ecotourism in the Alvand Khomein protected area. The statistical sample of the research was 230 environmental experts and fans, as well as those in charge of tourism marketing who were well acquainted with the Alvand region. After surveying these two groups, it was found that there is a difference of opinion between the attitudes of both groups on the dimensions of animal ecotourism. The social, cultural and economic dimensions were dimensions in which both groups disagreed, and only in the environmental dimension of animal ecotourism were the views of the two groups the same. Environmental experts did not consider the presence of numerous tourists in the form of tourist tours for the region to be socially, culturally and economically beneficial to the region and the animal environment. Tourism marketers, on the other hand, believed that maintaining the Alvand Protected Area required investments and costs that animal ecotourism could make possible.