A GIS-MCDA-Based Analysis for Spatial Ecotourism Suitability Assessment in Saudi Arabia’s Hail Province

Abstract

Ecotourism was developed to combine culture, education, and tourism, but it has now evolved into a fundamental idea for global ecological sustainability. Ecotourism has the potential to help protect natural assets while also fostering beneficial synergies among tourism sector agents, visitors, and local residents. Low-density communities gain from rising interest in low-impact tourist products that assist the local economy. Based on this approach, the current research aims to assess the potential of existing natural and rural characteristics in the Hail area, situated in the center of Saudi Arabia, to underpin the development of sustainable tourist goods. In the research, natural ecotourism locations in Saudi Arabia’s Hail province were evaluated for their spatial suitability. The methodology of the research included a number of steps and procedures, beginning with the creation of a geographic database on the area’s natural resources for tourists. After extracting data from various sources and determining the criteria for the spatial suitability of natural tourist sites, which are represented in a set of natural and human criteria that directly affect the success of any tourist site based on the standards of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Housing, and standards derived from literary references, a total of 27 highly suitable sites were identified. Based on GIS (Geographic Information System)-based multicriteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) methodology, nine criteria were identified and represented in the form of layers, which were merged with each other through the overlay mechanism, after assigning a weight to each criterion based on its importance, to create a map identifying relevant natural environment tourist locations in the research region. The locate region for ecotourism, which covers 24501.225 km2, produced by the suitability modeler tool within ArcGIS Pro software and defined by the presence of ecotourism sites that fulfill the needs and standards of environmental tourism sites according to four degrees of suitability (high, moderate, marginal, and low). From a total of 64 sites, 27 exhibit a high suitability for ecotourism, accounting for 42.18% of all sites. While the number of sites with a moderate suitability rating reached 37 sites, representing 57.81% of all sites.