Introduction to a Framework for Assessing Tourism Potential

As site selection is one of the most important stages in tourism development planning, this study provides the prospect of improved information for achieving this aim, observing the sustainable development regulations. In fact, the main aim of this research is to introduce a framework for assessing the tourism potential of the regions and, ultimately, selection of sites for establishing tourist complexes. This site selection process has been designed in two stages and uses micro and macro scales. In the first stage of the process, which includes site selection at the macro scale level, a number of criteria have been proposed, by which the selection of one city from among several cities would be possible for tourism investment. These criteria have been introduced using AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method. In the second stage of site selection, which entails the selection of location at the micro scale level, the introduced criteria help the users in selection of the best location for establishing tourist complexes on a smaller scale, across a city.