Withanage Neel Chaminda, Chanuwan Wijesinghe Dilnu, Mishra Prabuddh Kumar, Abdelrahman Kamal, Mishra Vishal, Fnais Mohammed S
Department of Geography, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ruhuna, Wellamadama, Matara, 81000, Sri Lanka.
School of Geographical Sciences, Southwest University, Chongqing, Beibei District, PR China.
Heliyon. 2024 May 22;10(11):e31585. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e31585. eCollection 2024 Jun 15.
The concept of ecotourism has experienced a significant surge in popularity over the past two decades, primarily driven by the multitude of adverse impacts associated with mass tourism. The objective of the study was to develop a comprehensive ecotourism suitability index to guide policymakers in implementing tourism development policies. Given the considerable appeal of the study area to both local and international tourists, it is essential to conduct a systematic evaluation to pinpoint suitable areas for ecotourism development. This necessity arises from the study area's placement within a fragile ecosystem and its proximity to a UNESCO World Heritage site. We employed a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) integrated environment coupled with a fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methodology. The GIS-MCDA integrated framework leverages the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and a weighted linear combination that seeks to amalgamate many features and criteria to assess ecotourism potential by integrating 20 criteria into six separate categories: landscape, topography, accessibility, climate, forest and wildlife, and negative factors. Weights were allocated to each criterion and factor based on the expert's opinions of their impact on the development of ecotourism. The final ecotourism suitability index comprised five unique classes: very high, high, moderate, less, and not suitable. Results reveal that out of the total areas, 45.4 % (259 km) are within the high and very high suitable classes. The sensitivity analysis suggested that ecotourism potentials are more favorable to forest and accessibility variables. The generated index can be utilized as a road map since validation verified a 64 % accuracy. Given the dearth of earlier research, this study provides vital support for the development of sustainable ecotourism projects in the study area.
在过去二十年中，生态旅游的概念广受欢迎，这主要是受到大众旅游带来的诸多负面影响的推动。该研究的目的是制定一个全面的生态旅游适宜性指数，以指导政策制定者实施旅游发展政策。鉴于研究区域对本地和国际游客都具有相当大的吸引力，有必要进行系统评估，以确定适合生态旅游发展的区域。这种必要性源于研究区域位于脆弱生态系统内且靠近联合国教科文组织世界遗产地。我们采用了地理信息系统（GIS）集成环境，并结合模糊多准则决策分析（MCDA）方法。GIS - MCDA集成框架利用层次分析法（AHP）和加权线性组合，旨在整合众多特征和标准，通过将20个标准纳入六个不同类别来评估生态旅游潜力：景观、地形、可达性、气候、森林和野生动物以及负面因素。根据专家对各标准和因素对生态旅游发展影响的意见，为每个标准和因素分配权重。最终的生态旅游适宜性指数包括五个独特等级：非常高、高、中等、低和不适宜。结果显示，在总面积中，45.4%（259平方公里）处于高和非常高适宜等级范围内。敏感性分析表明，生态旅游潜力对森林和可达性变量更为有利。由于验证显示准确率为64%，生成的指数可作为路线图使用。鉴于早期研究较少，本研究为研究区域可持续生态旅游项目的发展提供了重要支持。
