Site suitability evaluation for ecotourism using GIS and AHP: A case study of Isfahan Townships, Iran

Article history: Received January 14, 2014 Accepted 10 June 2014 Available online June 22 2014 Ecotourism, as a multibillion dollars business, is an industry with high potentials for economic competition. One of the proper solutions for developing ecotourism is better identification of different regions where there is a tourism capacity and accurate planning for performing feasibility study of those regions in terms of attracting ecotourism as well as creating infrastructures in those regions. This paper evaluates capacities and power of tourism as well as nature tourism in Isfahan Township using Geographic Information System and Analytical Hierarchy Process. The present research is applied and research method is descriptiveanalytical. Meanwhile, to analyze data, Arc GIS is used. Findings indicate that regarding the map of ecotourism capacity of Isfahan townships, resulted from combining various climatologically, geological, hydrological, topological maps and access maps, the township is not homogeneous in terms of nature tourism and coastal parts of the township (regions around Zayand-e-Rood) have better condition than other parts and should be considered for tourism development planning. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.