Ranking the Cities of Mazandaran Province Based on Tourism Infrastructure Using Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Approach
Subject Areas :
Keywords: MCDM, Tourism, infrastructure, Mazandaran, rating,
Abstract :
Sustainable tourism in many countries is a symbol of cultural identity and an important part of the economy. Policy-makers in developing countries have frequently introduced tourism as a way for sustainable development. In many areas the unequal distribution of tourism infrastructures harms tourist attraction and deprives the other areas of tourism benefits. Grading is a criterion for determining the center of tourist area, determining the required infrastructure, and finally mitigating the existing inequality between areas. Accordingly, this study aimed at evaluating and ranking the cities in Mazandaran province in terms of tourism infrastructure. The method of the research was cross- functional based on the purpose of the study. The population of all the cities of the province up to 2014 was selected. To rank the cities, 10 indicators were selected based on tourism infrastructure and then the importance of infrastructure was calculated using the coefficient ANP and multi-criteria decision making techniques using TOPSIS, VICOR. Finally, using the integration techniques, all cities were ranked based on five scales. The results indicated that based on the criteria for ranking the cities, Amol, Sari, Babol were the best ones respectively as far as tourism infrastructure is considered. The cities of Golvagah, Myandrud and Simorg , on the other hand, had the lowest level of tourism infrastructure.