Application of Analytical Network Process (ANP) in Determination and Evaluation of Potential Area to Ecotourism Development inBadreh Area, Ilam

Ecotourism as the largest industry in the world, accounts for one third of whole International trade and many people view tourism as a vehicle for economic development of a country. One of the beautiful areas in Iran is Badreh region which is located in Ilam Province. Despite of abundant recreation attractions and many conditions for ecotourism development in this area, but there is no appropriate planning for ecotourism development as a strategy for sustainable development of the region so far. With respect to the importance of the subject, in this study we tried to use GIS and ANP method for evaluating and determining of suitable area for ecotourism in this region. For this regard, firstly different criteria and effective options on evaluating process were determined then a network between the criteria was designed. After that, by using of expert opinions and ANP method the final weight of effective options in evaluating of land potential was assigned and the needed maps for this evaluation were provided. At the end, using of Weighted Linear Combination (WLC) technique the final potential ecotourism development map for the region was provided. The results showed that 6.11 percent of the region fall into the class 1 (high potential) and 29.41, 50.17 and 14.3 percent fall into 2, 3 and 4 classes respectively.