Assessing the scenarios of salt hotel and safari park for desert tourism development in arid ecosystems (case study: Maranjab area, Aran and Bidgol)

Introduction Development of tourism activities in desert ecosystems is one of the important strategies for sustainable development in arid and semiarid regions that if proper planning can lead to the development of the economy and infrastructure. Improper management policies are effective directly and indirectly on the destruction of the natural environment and more severely on drylands and deserts. Therefore, eco-friendly policies can be preventing from land degradation. Ecotourism development in arid regions can act as a management strategy in line with the environment and also an alternative policy to combat land degradation, ecosystem survival and optimum utilization of nature. Maranjab area in addition to attractions such as the historic castle, with geomorphological and geological phenomena such as sand dunes, Salt Lake and various forms of wind process, including sites geotourism which is capable of absorbing tourism based nature at the national and regional levels, but has yet to find its place in the country in terms of natural tourism. In this regard, the present study with plan of scenarios of desert tourism development in the form of site selection of salt hotel and safari park can provide the solutions to comply with the conditions of arid ecosystems. Therefore, the principles of this study are basis on recognizing the potential and capacities of Maranjab area and planning and management of desert tourism in the form of developmental scenarios based on the location of safari park and salt hotel. Materials and methods Maranjab area with the geographical position 51 degrees and 15 minutes to 52 degrees and 8 minutes of east longitude and 34 degrees and 35 minutes to 34 degrees and 5 minutes of north latitude, is located in the city's political boundaries of Aran and Bidgol in Isfahan province. The region covers an area of ​​256 763 hectares, with average elevation about 850 meters. Long-term average annual precipitation in the region is 111.4 mm, and July and January, respectively, with average temperatures of 33.25 and 3.51 degrees Celsius are the warmest and coldest months of the year. The research is applied and its methodology is based on analysis of spatial and field data in ArcGIS software and analysis of questionnaire data in Expert Choice software. The research process includes the definition of proposed scenarios in the form of salt hotel and safari park, identify of criteria and indicators of each scenario individually and collecting their data, determination of criteria and indicators weight using questionnaires and prioritize them using Analytical Hierarchy Process model, preparation of weighted maps and integrate them according to their weight, and finally zoning of land suitability of study area and priority zones to land allocation for each scenario. Site selection of mentioned scenarios were conducted according to criteria of available, landscape, environmental protection and limitation (risks). By applying the obtained weights of AHP model on layers of criteria and indicators, their weighted maps were prepared. Combination of weighted layers was resulted to layers of land suitability of safari park and salt hotel that in order to determine the location of the suitable zones, the layers were classified into five priorities by natural breaks methods. Results and discussion In the salt hotel scenario, criteria of available, landscape, environmental protection, limitation and raw materials (salt) were assessed that according to results of AHP model have the weights of 0.495, 0.234, 0.132, 0.094 and 0.044, respectively. Also, the weighted maps of salt hotel scenario showed that digital ranges of distance to roads from 0 to 0.2415, distance to tourism attractions from 0.0158 to 0.1305, distance from residential centers from 0 to 0.1002, landuse from 0 to 0.234, vegetation covers from 0 to 0.0529, geological formations from 0.001 to 0.0137, wind erosion condition from 0.0016 to 0.0135, possibility of surface moisture from 0 to 0.0948 and distance to salt mine from 0 to 0.044 are fluctuate. In the safari park scenario, criteria of available, landscape, environmental protection, and limitation were evaluated that according to results of AHP model have the weights of 0.418, 0.326, 0.161, and 0.093, respectively. Also, the weighted maps of salt hotel scenario showed that digital ranges of distance to residential centers from 0 to 0.22005, distance to roads from 0 to 0.1299, distance to health centers from 0 to 0.0214, landuse from 0 to 0.2353, vegetation covers from 0 to 0.123, wind erosion condition from 0.002 to 0.0153, distance from marsh areas from 0 to 0.0626, distance from aqueducts from 0 to 0.0223 and distance from mines from 0 to 0.0084 are fluctuate. Conclusion final map of land suitability of desert tourism in the region Maranjab represented that the salt hotel scenario layer has weight range between 0.3208 and 0.8351 and the safari park scenario layer has weight range between 0.2294 and 0.8351. Also, according to land suitability maps, 959 and 45403 hectares (0.3745 and 17/6828 %) of Maranjab area have very suitable capability as the first priority for allocation to salt hotel and safari park, respectively. The first priority of salt hotel has an area over 345 hectares, which along with the second priority with area of 614 hectares are generally compliance with Erratic Island in Salt Lake. This compatibility is due to the access to roads, landscape, lack of surface moisture and numerous tourism attractions. The first priority of safari park has an area over 16910 hectares, which is generally matches on sandy areas and sand dunes of north of Aran Erg. This conformity is due to the relative proximity of these lands to road and high weight of sand dunes landuse.