Assessment of Ecotourism Potentials on the Northern Slopes of Bozghoush Mountains

Introduction
Tourism is one of the activities that demand for it is increasing. Tourism as a non-smoking industry, has less destructive environmental impacts but for some, tourism is an important threat to cultural and biological diversity. This idea caused the concept of sustainable tourism development and the forms of alternative tourism to be raised. For this reason, the development of ecotourism as a form of alternative tourism is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable tourism development.
Identifying and planning the suitable ecotourism areas as an effective tool and solution can play an essential role in sustainable tourism development. Although Iran has a variety of natural attractions, but it hasn't been able to make good use of this advantage. One of the most suitable ecotourism areas in Iran and East Azerbaijan Province is the Northern Slopes of Bozghoush Mountains. This area has a lot of natural attractions such as high peaks, numerous hot springs and green spaces which can be a destination for hiking, adventure tourism, ski, water therapy and leisure activities. In spite of such attractions, none of these activities is known in the real sense; on the other hand, comprehensive planning has not been done in this area. Although several tourists go to the northern slopes of Bozghoush Mountain in spring and summer but there isn't any suitable infrastructures in this area.  This indicates the necessity of investigating in this region and the main thing for encouraging investors is identifying, prioritizing and informing them. Such actions lie in the context of scientific research. So far, several studies has been done on geomorphology and geology of this region but there hasn't been any study to identify suitable ecotourism areas. The present study has aimed to reach this goal.
The goal of this study is identifying the ecotourism capabilities of the northern slopes of Bozghoush Mountain using Vikor technique in order to identify the most suitable areas for ecotourism activities.
Methodology
The research method of this study is descriptive-analytical and in terms of purpose, it is practical. In order to achieve the research goals, the most important criteria of site selection for mountaineering, hiking and ski was identified by library research and expert survey, and then the weight of each criteria was determined by the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). In the following, in order to integrate layers in ArcGIS, VIKOR method has been used.
To determine the final weight of the criteria, a questionnaire was designed and it has been filled by 30 experts. The experts were familiar with both the AHP method and the features of study area. Five questionnaire were corrupted and 25 of them were valid. The hierarchy structure was formed in the Expert Choice. Then the data obtained from questionnaire which was a pairwise comparison, was added to the software. In the following, in order to integrate layers in ArcGIS, VIKOR method has been used.
Finally, by overlaying the maps of mountaineering, hiking and ski, the most suitable areas of ecotourism was determined.
Conclusion
The northern slopes of Bouzghoush Mountain located in East Azerbaijan Province have high ecotourism potential, which allows tourists to do activities such as mountaineering, hiking and ski. In the present study, in order to site selection and prioritize the ecotourism areas, the activities were divided into three types and evaluated by Vikor technique. Various criteria were selected by literature review and weighted in Expert choice using AHP method. Finally maps of mountaineering, hiking and ski were obtained and by overlaying the maps, the final map of suitable ecotourism areas was achieved. The results show that in terms of suitable site selection of ecotourism, 15.43 percent of area is in very suitable condition, 35.52 percent in suitable condition, 39.91 percent in average condition and 9.14 percent in unsuitable condition. The most suitable area covers the hot springs of Asbforoushan and Allah Hagh, as well as Jelda Bakhan and Ardeha villages. These sites tops the list of priorities for development.