Abastract Increasing rate of urbanization has raised the demand for ecotourism activities. As the ecotourism industry grows, the necessity for developing evaluation systems is more highlighted. Such an evaluation system can helps tourists to know the quality of their destination for their desired activities and assists in effective management and conservation of the wilderness areas.In this study we evaluated protected areas ( Kolah-Ghazi, Ghamishlo, Mooteh, Abbas-Abad, Karkas, Ghamsar-Kashan, Gavkhoni) located in Isfahan province, central Iran, using Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP).The approach adopted for this study involves several steps:1.establishing a hierarchical structure, 2.performing a pairwise comparison, 3.obtaining weights for all elements in the structure and alternatives, 4.providing a measure of consistency colled the consistency index. The analytical structure was defined based on the important factors influencing site selection by tourists. Relative importance of the selected criteria were determined through questionnaires filled by visitors. The weight of each area with respect to the determined criteria was then obtained by getting viewpoints of park managment experts by means of a pair-wise comparisons matrix. Finally, using the obtained weightings, each protected area was ranked for ecotourism using criteria defined for this purpose. Results of this study demonstrate how AHP can be used to determine the relative importance of various factors and to assess the relative performance of selected areas with regard to the factors. The most suitable area from amoung the protected areas within the province was identified and each area was ranked for different criteria defined.To determine the suitable recreational sites within a protected area, suitability analysis was performed for Abbas–Abad rotected area by coupling GIS based weighted linear combination(WLC) model and Boolean logic with multicriteria evaluation techniques (AHP). GIS are used for geographic data acquisition and processing. The method used i this study involves several steps: 1) indentifying important factors for intensive and extensive recreation. These factores were climate, vista points, slop, aspect, elevation, proximity to roads, proximity to cultural resources, proximity to water resources, proximity to mines, soil properties, land use, vegetation groups, core area, proximity to faults, proximity to power lines, proximity to sheepfolds. 2) Input factors were weighted by using AHP. 3) suitable and unsuitable ranges were determined and maped. 4) Input factors were standardized by fuzzy functions. 5) performinig MCE (Multi Criteria Evaluation) analysis.
