IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/touman/v42y2014icp165-176.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identifying and mapping forest-based ecotourism areas in West Virginia – Incorporating visitors' preferences

Author

Listed:
  • Dhami, Ishwar
  • Deng, Jinyang
  • Burns, Robert C.
  • Pierskalla, Chad

Abstract

This study identifies and maps forest-based ecotourism areas in West Virginia by incorporating visitors' preferences. Relative weights for ecotourism destination criteria were obtained using the Analytic Hierarchy Process based on a survey of 777 participants. The study classified the state into five levels of naturalness with areas under Class I being the least natural and Class V being the most natural. The presence of wildlife was found to be the most important criterion and slope was found to be the least. Results also showed significant variations in visitors' preferences. Areas under Class IV and Class V in both weighted and unweighted ecotourism maps covered more than half of the state's area, suggesting high prospects for promoting forest-based ecotourism in the state. The results further showed that each class changed in size when visitors' preferences were applied. The ecotourism maps created provide useful insights for visitors, destination managers, and decision makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Dhami, Ishwar & Deng, Jinyang & Burns, Robert C. & Pierskalla, Chad, 2014. "Identifying and mapping forest-based ecotourism areas in West Virginia – Incorporating visitors' preferences," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 165-176.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:42:y:2014:i:c:p:165-176
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tourman.2013.11.007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517713002057
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tourman.2013.11.007?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Strager, Michael P. & Rosenberger, Randall S., 2006. "Incorporating stakeholder preferences for land conservation: Weights and measures in spatial MCA," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1), pages 79-92, June.
    2. Yoram Wind & Thomas L. Saaty, 1980. "Marketing Applications of the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(7), pages 641-658, July.
    3. P Jankowski & L Richard, 1994. "Integration of GIS-Based Suitability Analysis and Multicriteria Evaluation in a Spatial Decision Support System for Route Selection," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 21(3), pages 323-340, June.
    4. Ho, William, 2008. "Integrated analytic hierarchy process and its applications - A literature review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(1), pages 211-228, April.
    5. Strager, Michael P. & Rosenberger, Randall S., 2006. "Incorporating stakeholder preferences for land conservation: Weights and measures in spatial MCA," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 627-639, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Manijeh Talebi & Baris Majnounian & Majid Makhdoum & Ehsan Abdi & Mahmoud Omid, 2021. "Predicting areas with ecotourism capability using artificial neural networks and linear discriminant analysis (case study: Arasbaran Protected Area, Iran)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 8272-8287, June.
    2. Yekani Motlagh, Elgar & Hajjarian, Marzieh & Hossein Zadeh, Omid & Alijanpour, Ahmad, 2020. "The difference of expert opinion on the forest-based ecotourism development in developed countries and Iran," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    3. Abel González-Ramiro & Gil Gonçalves & Alonso Sánchez-Ríos & Jin Su Jeong, 2016. "Using a VGI and GIS-Based Multicriteria Approach for Assessing the Potential of Rural Tourism in Extremadura (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Wu, Shou-Tsung & Chen, Yeong-Shyang, 2016. "Examining eco-environmental changes at major recreational sites in Kenting National Park in Taiwan by integrating SPOT satellite images and NDVI," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 23-36.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jinyang Deng & David Dyre, 2009. "Linking Tourism Resources and Local Economic Benefits: A Spatial Analysis in West Virginia," Working Papers Working Paper 2009-06, Regional Research Institute, West Virginia University.
    2. Lundström, Johanna & Öhman, Karin & Rönnqvist, Mikael & Gustafsson, Lena, 2014. "How reserve selection is affected by preferences in Swedish boreal forests," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 40-50.
    3. Imran Jamali & Ulla Mörtberg & Bo Olofsson & Muhammad Shafique, 2014. "A Spatial Multi-Criteria Analysis Approach for Locating Suitable Sites for Construction of Subsurface Dams in Northern Pakistan," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 28(14), pages 5157-5174, November.
    4. Miller, Harvey J. & Witlox, Frank & Tribby, Calvin P., 2013. "Developing context-sensitive livability indicators for transportation planning: a measurement framework," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 51-64.
    5. Banai, Reza, 2010. "Evaluation of land use-transportation systems with the Analytic Network Process," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 3(1), pages 85-112.
    6. Parnphumeesup, Piya & Kerr, Sandy A., 2011. "Stakeholder preferences towards the sustainable development of CDM projects: Lessons from biomass (rice husk) CDM project in Thailand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3591-3601, June.
    7. Madjid Tavana & Mariya Sodenkamp & Leena Suhl, 2010. "A soft multi-criteria decision analysis model with application to the European Union enlargement," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 393-421, December.
    8. repec:rri:wpaper:200906 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Blackstock, K.L. & Kelly, G.J. & Horsey, B.L., 2007. "Developing and applying a framework to evaluate participatory research for sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(4), pages 726-742, February.
    10. Sironen, Susanna & Primmer, Eeva & Leskinen, Pekka & Similä, Jukka & Punttila, Pekka, 2020. "Context sensitive policy instruments: A multi-criteria decision analysis for safeguarding forest habitats in Southwestern Finland," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    11. Mohammed Abdul Rahman AlShehri & Shailendra Mishra, 2019. "Feature Based Comparison and Selection of SDN Controller," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(05), pages 1-23, August.
    12. Richards, Daniel R. & Warren, Philip H. & Moggridge, Helen L. & Maltby, Lorraine, 2015. "Spatial variation in the impact of dragonflies and debris on recreational ecosystem services in a floodplain wetland," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 113-121.
    13. Paweł Karczmarek & Witold Pedrycz & Adam Kiersztyn, 2021. "Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process in a Graphical Approach," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 463-481, April.
    14. J Aznar & J Ferrís-Oñate & F Guijarro, 2010. "An ANP framework for property pricing combining quantitative and qualitative attributes," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 61(5), pages 740-755, May.
    15. Lai, Po‐Lin & Potter, Andrew & Beynon, Malcolm & Beresford, Anthony, 2015. "Evaluating the efficiency performance of airports using an integrated AHP/DEA-AR technique," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 75-85.
    16. repec:jle:journl:132 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Melda Gelibolu Bayrakcı & Ömer Faruk Baykoç, 2023. "An integrated modelling approach for an optimal location of warehouses in the defence industry organisation," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 33(2), pages 35-52.
    18. Maria Cerreta & Pasquale De Toro, 2012. "Strategic Environmental Assessment of Port Plans in Italy: Experiences, Approaches, Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(11), pages 1-34, November.
    19. Georgia Kandilioti & Christos Makropoulos, 2012. "Preliminary flood risk assessment: the case of Athens," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 61(2), pages 441-468, March.
    20. Mukund Pratap Singh & Pitam Singh & Priyamvada Singh, 2019. "Fuzzy AHP-based multi-criteria decision-making analysis for route alignment planning using geographic information system (GIS)," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 395-432, September.
    21. Ron Janssen & Gustavo A Arciniegas & Jos T A Verhoeven, 2013. "Spatial Evaluation of Ecological Qualities to Support Interactive Land-Use Planning," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 40(3), pages 427-446, June.
    22. Seyed Saeed Hosseinian & Hamidreza Navidi & Abas Hajfathaliha, 2012. "A New Linear Programming Method for Weights Generation and Group Decision Making in the Analytic Hierarchy Process," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 233-254, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:touman:v:42:y:2014:i:c:p:165-176. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/tourism-management .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.