Land Quality Management for Ecotourism Development; Case of Mahallat District

This study aimed to evaluate a combination of Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods for land quality management in Ecotourism planning for identifying the most important strategies for ecotourism development planning. Mahallat city was chosen as the study area. It is located in the south-eastern of Markazi Province, Iran. In this study, the internal strategic factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats) were identified. Then, MCDM, especially Analytic Network Process (ANP) and decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) techniques, were used in the matrix to evaluate and prioritize these factors and to develop proposed strategies. Then, using a designed network model, the proposed strategies were weighted and the main strategies of the evaluation matrix were ranked. Research findings revealed that the most effective strategy is an emphasis on nature tourism and eco-tourism development due to natural, historical and cultural attractions as an absorbent factor and tourism development model in order to enhance regional development. Based on the results, this research successfully identified the effective strategies in the framework of weakness and strengths, opportunities and threats and their weights and ranks of criteria by ANP and DEMATEL. Finally, this method helped to make suitable strategies for sustainable development of ecotourism in Mahallat district. Therefore, the study showed that MCDM can be applied to manage land and implement land use programs as a qualitative method.