A tool in determination of rural tourism alternatives: The ecosystem services approach

Abstract

This study is conducted in Ankara-Haymana County and based on linking ecosystem service benefits with rural tourism types. It aims to identify and prioritize ecosystem services and propose the suitable rural tourism type for the area by means of associating the benefits of these services with rural tourism types. For this purpose, the combination of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model and Fuzzy set technique is used. Selected ecosystem services -food, fresh water, biochemical natural medicines and pharmaceuticals, biological materials, pest regulation, natural hazard regulation, pollination, erosion regulation, aesthetic values, recreation and ecotourism, knowledge systems and educational values are associated with selected rural tourism options -agricultural, thermal and cultural tourism. Based on the findings, “thermal tourism” has been proposed as the most suitable tourism type for the study area under ecosystem services based decision support tools.

Keywords

• ecosystem services
• rural tourism
• analytic hierarchy process
• fuzzy set
• haymana
• ekosistem hizmetleri
• kırsal turizm
• analitik hiyerarşi süreci
• fuzzy set
• haymana