Prioritization of Eco-tourism Attractions (The target villages of Charmahal O Bakhtiar province)

Extended abstract1-IntroductionIn today’s world tourism is one of the essential revenue generating industries that serves as a means for cultural exchange among nation as well. Rural-tourism is a branch of tourism that is limited to the rural environment with respect to the culture and traditional customs that include their hand-craft, behavior, hospitality, green-tours, farm-tours, hunting, their cooking manners etc. Any country that intends to attract tourists in this field should be equipped with the following two characteristics: the potential that is the natural resources and the ability to provide services and facilities for rural-tourism that is the accommodation.2- Theoretical basesThis idea was first established during the 19th century in the western civilization when due to industrialization and urban-dwelling, transportation and welfare; people had more leisure time to visit rural areas in vast numbers.In the 20 year forecast program of development in the realm of tourism a national approach is adopted to promote the deprived regions’ potentials through manipulation of their natural/rural capacities and abilities. In order to finance the fundamental aspects of such programs, the authorities would face numerous problems.One of the measures that could overcome these problems to a certain degree is to prioritize the villages in a province based on their potentials then categorizes them as the village-tourism centers. For this purpose, an attempt is made to prioritize the potential villages by applying AHP, which is to validate them for investment, which will include all that is needed for Village Tourism. This issue has been of concern in different countries where putting the available natural resources at the National Tourist Industry’s services would be beneficial.- The study zoneCharmahal o Bakhtiar is a province with an area of 16,532 Km2. The geographic and demographic features of this province are presented in Table 1: RowTarget villageTourist attractionClosest cityClosest townshipClimate1HoreHistoric NaturalShahrekordSamanModerate2Yase chahNaturalShahrekordSamanModerate3ChalvanNaturalShahrekordSamanModerate4SavadjanNaturalShahrekordSamanModerate5Dastgerd ImamzadehHistoricKiarShalumzarMediterranean6DezakHistoricKiarShalumzarMediterranean7DimeNaturalKohrangCholgerdCold & Humid8Sheikh AlikhanNaturalKohrangCholgerdCold & Humid9Sar Agha SeyedNaturalKohrangCholgerdCold & Humid10AvreganNaturalBoroojenBoldajiMediterranean11DehcheshmeNaturalFarsanFarsanMediterranean12AtishgahNaturalLordeganFarsanHot & Humid - MethodologyWith respect to the componen