GIS Decision Making for Tourism Susceptibility Mapping in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran

Today, tourists commonly explore tourism destinations online before visiting the real world destination. This study suggests a methodology to establish tourism susceptibility maps for potential visitors who care about the environment and are sensitive to not harm the environment. The resulting maps also address regional tourism management stakeholders. The approach integrates GIS based multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) for mapping susceptible areas in East Azerbaijan Province, Iran. Relevant factors were selected, implemented as GIS datasets and weighted with ANP. The resulting susceptibility map identifies highly susceptible areas. Results of this study support visitors and tourism mangers to behave environmentally cautious and to develop sustainable tourism.

Keywords:

Nature-based tourism , Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) , Analytical Network Process (ANP) , East Azerbaijan province