Sustainable Tourism Development through Cultural Landscape Approach – Case Study: Rayen, Kerman, Iran

Mehrnoosh Rahimian (Science & Research Branch University)
Amirhossein Mirhosseiny (Landscape Design Bureau)

Rapid urbanization has resulted in an immense amount of damages to the ecological and socio-economic systems. In response to these problems, thisstudy addresses sustainable tourism development through cultural landscape protection in Rayen city, Iran. Rayen is a historical city in Kerman county with a valuable cultural landscape. Considering Rayen castle as an adobe castle located in Rayen, this city is prone to become a tourism center.

To propose a tourism development plan, a three phases regional assessment was planned. In the first phase, the cultural, environmental and socio-economic features were identified through EPGIS method. Then, to prioritize them FAHP method was employed. In the last phase, the TOPSIS technique was used to optimize the data and analyze the statistics. Eventually, a tourism corridor surrounding Rayen castle as a landscape symbol was planned. This protects the regional heritage against urban sprawl.

Key words: Heritage, Cultural landscape, tourism corridor, sustainable tourism development