IDENTIFICATION AND EVALUATION OF FOREST-BASED ECOTOURISM AREA USING ANALYTICAL HIERARCHY PROCESS AND GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: COMPLETE
• Funding Source: MCINTIRE-STENNIS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 0206012
• Project Start Date: May 1, 2006
• Project End Date: Nov 2, 2011
• Program Code: [(N/A)]- (N/A)

Recipient Organization
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY
886 CHESTNUT RIDGE RD RM 202
MORGANTOWN,WV 26505-2742

Performing Department
Forestry

Non Technical Summary
Ecotourism has been examined primarily from the perspective of tourists while largely ignoring its fundamental component--ecotourism destinations. That is, what constitutes an ecotourism destination has remained largely unaddressed in the ecotourism literature. Although Ziffer (1989) emphasized the need to set up standards by which ecotourism destinations or programs can be identified and judged, few studies have been subsequently conducted for developing such standards for ecotourism areas. Perhaps this is reflective of the fact that the majority of the current tourism certification systems focus on accommodations and businesses while few, if any, have been developed to focus on ecotourism destinations due to the lack of standards (cf. Honey & Stewart, 2002). The purpose of this research is to identify and evaluate forest-based ecotourism areas against criteria and indicators to be developed through the Delphi method. The outcome from using the Delphi method will be used as input for determining the relative priorities of criteria and indicators by the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which will be integrated with GIS to spatially identify and evaluate selected forest-based ecotourism areas. Study findings will provide a theoretical basis for ecotourism development in forested areas as well as practical approaches for ecotourism managers, planners and decision makers to plan, manage, and develop ecotourism in a sustainable manner.

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
134	0599	2060	100%

Knowledge Area
134 - Outdoor Recreation;

Subject Of Investigation
0599 - Recreational resources, general/other;

Field Of Science
2060 - Geography;

Keywords

ecotourism

delphi method

analytical hierarchy process

gis

evaluation

Goals / Objectives
1. Develop criteria and indicators and their relative priorities for forest-based ecotourism destinations using the Delphi method and the Analytical Hierarchy of Process (AHP). 2. Identify potential and so called existing ecotourism areas within the United States with focus on West Virginia using developed criteria and indicators. Forested areas that have potential to be developed into ecotourism destinations will be identified using the performance-based criteria which primarily focus on the environmental quality and suitability of an area. This study will build upon Boyd's et al. (1994) study of identifying criteria and indicators by which potential areas for ecotourism can be identified using GIS. For existing ecotourism areas, both performance and process-based criteria will be used. 3. Evaluate and rate existing ecotourism areas. With the developed criteria and indicators, the existing ecotourism areas can be evaluated and rated. Ecotourism areas with varied life cycles of development will be selected. The integration of AHP with GIS allows the rated areas to be displayed spatially. Existing AHP analyses have paid less attention to the effect of eliminating criteria and the effect of management practices. The consideration of the eliminating criteria in ecotourism identification and evaluation is important in that the lack of one element (i.e., environmental interpretation) or poor quality of the element could result in the failure of an area being judged as ecotourism or being ranked at a higher level. Equally important is the consideration of managerial practices. For example, if an element (i.e., environmental interpretation) is added to an ecotourism area or the interpretation quality has been improved, the sensitivity of this correcting effect should be able to be reflected in the AHP. To deal with this issue, a hybrid approach will be adopted in this study to solve this issue. 4. Establish a GIS database for selected ecotourism areas so that these areas can be monitored and evaluated in a dynamic manner. Information stored in printing maps and papers are static representation of ecotourism areas. This conventional approach retards the effective and efficient decision making, planning, and management involving ecotourism. The preparation of a GIS database allows for the storage, manipulation, and analysis of spatial data in a dynamic and convenient manner. The GIS database will be established to target a number of ecotourism areas with varied life cycle development stages by utilizing existing GIS compatible digital files which will be completed by digitizing maps or on site measurement by using GPS (i.e., locations of hotels, campgrounds, etc.).

Project Methods
The methods used to conduct this study will include the identification and determination of criteria and indicators for ecotourism areas through the Delphi method. The outcome from using the Delphi method will be used as input for the determination of relative priorities among criteria/attributes and indicators using AHP which will involve three groups: academic researchers, managers/practitioners, and visitors. On the basis of developed criteria and indicators, GIS will be used to spatially identify potential areas (i.e., national forest areas) suitable for ecotourism using performance-based criteria as well as existing ecotourism areas (forest-based ecotourism areas such as national parks, protected areas, etc.) using both performance-based and process-based criteria. AHP will be integrated into GIS to spatially rate and evaluate both potential and existing ecotourism areas. The following procedures will be used to address the research objectives outlined in the previous section: 1. A sample of researchers who are active in ecotourism research will be identified through their published papers/reports. In addition, a sample of ecotourism managers/practitioners/operators will be determined through varied approaches. Self administrative questionnaires will be mailed to these study participants following Dillman's total design method (2000). Ecotourist surveys will be conducted by in-person interviews and self-administered on-site questionnaires in several national parks, protected areas and forest areas, representing ecotourism development at varied levels. 2. The identification of criteria and indicators for ecotourism areas will involve ecotourism researchers and professionals without the inclusion of ecotourists because of the iterative nature of the consensus building process, where follow-up surveys among ecotourists are less controllable. However, for the assignments of relative weighs to criteria and indicators determined through the use of the Delphi method, ecotourists will be considered. Thus, relative importance among criteria and indicators will be determined by three separate groups. The pooled judgments among the three groups will also be calculated. Results from the separate groups and the pooled group will be compared. 3. A hybrid AHP will be developed to reflect the role of managerial practices. That is, for the potential ecotourism areas, the AHP will just reflect those aspects associated with ecotourism attractions and resources while for existing ecotourism areas the managerial aspects will be added. Selected existing areas will be rated according to their environmental and managerial quality into four or five levels. This will allow tourists to relate their experience to the quality of ecotourism areas they visited. 4. A GIS database for selected ecotourism areas will be established to allow the monitoring and evaluation of these areas in a dynamic and graphic manner. This database will be updated over time to reflect changes in the reality. GIS date will be acquired mainly through universities, government agencies, and on-site measurements.

Progress 05/01/06 to 11/02/11

Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1.Two graduate students (Maureen Y. Bender, Master's student who has successfully graduated and Ishwar Dhami, Ph.D. student who is going to graduate May 2012) were hired to work on the project. 2.An annotated bibliography on ecotourism was prepared in terms of four general topics: 1) ecotourism theories and conceptual frameworks, 2) ecotourists; 3) ecotourism operators; and 4) ecotourism destinations. 3.A survey was conducted at two West Virginia Welcome Centers to examine the public knowledge about ecotourism and to identify who are ecotourists. A total of 1711 visitors were approached. Of this number, 944 were willing to participate. 38.6% of the total 944 respondents reported having heard about the term 'ecotourism' before. A large number of respondents defined ecotourism as nature-based tourism (27.6%), as a type of tourism for environmental protection (21.3%), or as environmentally friendly/responsible travel (12.3%). 33.5% of respondents self-identified themselves as ecotourists, and among these self-identified ecotourists,22.2% (or 11.39 million of victors to the state) were true ecotourists. 4.A point evaluation system was developed through inputs from tourism academics identified worldwide and tour operators selected from the state of West Virginia, USA, using a two-round of Delphi method. In the first round, 41 ecotourism academics and 17 tour operators returned their completed questionnaires. In the second round, 21 ecotourism academics and 7 tour operators continued to participate in the survey. Results indicate that both groups have achieved a consensus to a large extent on what constitutes ecotourism and what constitutes ecotourism destination criteria and indicators. However, it appeared that academics paid more attention to the ideal type of ecotourism while tour operators cared more about the practical aspects of ecotourism specifically the economic sustainability for their own businesses, but not for local communities. 5.A method to identify and classify ecotourism areas has been developed using Analytic Hierarchy Method (AHP) and GIS technologies. This method has classified all 55 counties of the state of West Virginia into different levels based on criteria and indicators developed by us for this project. 6.Ten presentations have been made to international conferences, one research paper and three proceedings papers were published. In addition, three manuscripts are under preparation. 7.Ishwar Dhami was awarded 3rd prize for his presentations at 2010 West Virginia GIS Conference. PARTICIPANTS: Not relevant to this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences of this project are tourism/ecotourism academics and practitioners. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
1.This project is anticipated to generate a significant economic, environmental, and social impact. Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established. 2.Findings on ecotourism in West Virginia based on the survey done at the two welcome centers have significant implications for West Virginia at a time when the state has begun to initiate a Travel Green Certificate program in 2007. These findings were shared at the 30th Southeastern Recreation Research Symposium held in February 2008 in Savannah, GA as well as shared by Mr. Douglas Arbogast, the President of Travel Green Appalachia among stakeholders who participated in the I TRAVEL GREEN certification program meeting held online in December 2008. 3.The article published in Journal of Ecotourism has triggered interests among researchers, in that one prestigious researcher in the tourism field has written a commentary paper and Dr. Deng was asked by the Editor of the Journal to prepare a rejoinder manuscript which has been submitted.

Publications

• No publications reported this period

Progress 01/01/10 to 12/31/10

Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1.The doctoral student, Ishwar Dhami, hired in August 2008 has surveyed (onsite face to face) 777 visitors at I-79 and I-68 Welcome Centers and 120 ecotourism experts (survey monkey online survey) 2.He and his supervisor Dr. Jinyang Deng presented a paper "Classification of forest-based ecotourism areas in Pocahontas County of West Virginia using GIS and pairwise comparison method" at the 22st Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium, held at the Sagamore Island, New York, April 11 to 13, 2010. 3.He did two presentations at the 2010 West Virginia GIS Conference. 4.A manuscript on a point evaluation system for ecotourism areas developed by the master's student (graduated in 2008) as her thesis research will appear on the first issue of the Journal of Ecotourism in 2011. PARTICIPANTS: Two individuals worked on the project during the reporting period. They are: Ishwar Dhami, doctoral student and Dr. Jinyang Deng, assistant professor. Two organizations were consulted during the research period, including West Virginia Division of Tourism and West Virginia Division of Forestry. Contacts were with Vicki Vaughan, Customer Services Director, West Virginia Division of Tourism and Steven E. Harouff , GIS specialist, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences of this project are tourism/ecotourism academics and practitioners PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
1.This project is anticipated to generate significant economic, environmental, and social impact. Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established. 2.Ishwar Dhami was awarded 3rd prize for his presentations on 2010 West Virginia GIS Conference.

Publications

• Dhami, I., and Deng, J. (2009). Modeling the scenic beauty of the Highland Scenic Highway. Proceedings of the 21st Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium.
• Deng, J., Bender, M., and Selin, S. (2011). Development of a Point Evaluation System for Ecotourism Destinations: A Delphi Method. Journal of Ecotourism, 10(1).

Progress 01/01/09 to 12/31/09

Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. The doctoral student hired in August 2008, Ishwar Dhami, has presented his thesis research proposal to his thesis examination committee. 2. He and his supervisor, Dr. Jinyang Deng, presented a paper at the 21st Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium, held at the Sagamore Island, New York, March 28th to March 31st, 2009. 3. He and his supervisor, Dr. Jinyang Deng, also submitted an abstract to the 22nd Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium (publication of proceedings currently in press). 4. An annotated bibliography of 200 papers on ecotourism and related topics was finished. 5. A manuscript on a point evaluation system for ecotourism areas developed by the master's student (graduated in 2008) as her thesis research was accepted and will be published by the Journal of Ecotourism. PARTICIPANTS: Two individuals worked on the project during the reporting period. They are: Ishwar Dhami, doctoral student and Dr. Jinyang Deng, assistant professor. Two organizations were consulted during the research period, including West Virginia Division of Tourism and West Virginia Division of Forestry. Contacts are listed below: Joe Black Research Analyst West Virginia Division of Tourism Charles "Randy" Dye Director/state forester Steven E. Harouff GIS specialist TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences of this project are tourism/ecotourism academics and practitioners. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.

Impacts
1. This project is anticipated to generate a significant economic, environmental, and social impact. Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established. 2. Journal of Ecotourism is an academic journal published internationally with focus on ecotourism. The acceptance of our paper by the journal is a reorganization of our work. Our work on point evaluation system for ecotourism areas will be made known through the journal to both academics and practitioners.

Publications

• No publications reported this period

Progress 01/01/08 to 12/31/08

Outputs
OUTPUTS: 1. One graduate student who was hired in August 2006 has successfully completed her thesis study and graduated in August 2008. 2. Another doctoral student was hired in August 2008. He will focus on the identification and evaluation of forest-based ecotourism destinations in West Virginia using GIS and other spatial analysis tools such as Geoda. 3. An annotated bibliography of 350 papers on ecotourism was finished. 4. A point evaluation system was developed through inputs from tourism academics identified worldwide and tour operators selected from the state of West Virginia, USA, using a two-round of Delphi method. In the first round, 41 ecotourism academics and 17 tour operators returned their completed questionnaires. In the second round, 21 ecotourism academics and 7 tour operators continued to participate in the survey. Results indicate that both groups have achieved a consensus to a large extent on what constitutes ecotourism and what constitutes ecotourism destination criteria and indicators. However, it appeared that academics paid more attention to the ideal type of ecotourism while tour operators cared more about the practical aspects of ecotourism specifically the economic sustainability for their own businesses, but not for local communities. 5. The total number of ecotourists through self-identification approach was estimated to be approximately 11.39 million or 22.2% of the general travel public to and in the state in 2006. This information was shared at the 30th Southeastern Recreation Research Symposium held in February 2008 in Savannah, GA as well as shared by Mr. Douglas Arbogast, the President of Travel Green Appalachia among stakeholders who participated in the I TRAVEL GREEN certification program meeting held online in December 2008. PARTICIPANTS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. TARGET AUDIENCES: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.

Impacts
1. This project is anticipated to generate a significant economic, environmental, and social impact. Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established. 2. Findings from this project have been used by West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and Travel Green Appalachia to convince tourism and tourism related industry operators that an ecotourism market does exist for the state. Thus, our findings contributed to the development of I TRAVEL GREEN certification program in the state.

Publications

• Deng, J., Wang, J., & Adolfson, G. (2008). Who are ecotourists Abstract proceedings for The 30 the Southeastern Recreation Research (SERR), February 25th-26th, 2008, Savannah, GA.

Progress 01/01/07 to 12/31/07

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The following summary of the work we have finished so far includes five aspects. First, we are preparing an annotated bibliography on ecotourism in terms of four general topics: 1) ecotourism theories and conceptual frameworks, 2) ecotourists; 3) ecotourism operators; and 4) ecotourism destinations. Currently, an annotated bibliography of 150 papers relevant to these topics was prepared by the student. A total of 500 important papers on ecotourism will be reviewed for this project. Second, a list of 70 ecotourism academics who are lead researchers in the area of ecotourism and a list of 50 ecotourism operators have been identified by the student. A survey will be conducted among these researchers to achieve a consensus for criteria of ecotourism areas. A questionnaire has been developed. This survey instrument was sent out for pilot study. Third, the gradate student has passed her research proposal presentation in December 2007. She has written up the first three sections of her thesis research: introduction, literature review, and methods. Fourth, a survey was conducted by the principal investigator at two West Virginia Welcome Centers to examine the public knowledge about ecotourism and to identify who are ecotourists. A total of 1711 visitors were approached. Of this number, 944 were willing to participate. 38.6% of the total 944 respondents reported having heard about the term "ecotourism" before. A large number of respondents defined ecotourism as nature-based tourism (27.6%), as a type of tourism for environmental protection (21.3%), or as environmentally friendly/responsible travel (12.3%). 33.5% of respondents self-identified themselves as ecotourists. This finding has significant implications for West Virginia at a time when the state has begun to initiate a Travel Green Certificate program in 2007. Finally, an abstract based on the survey was prepared by the principal investigator and submitted to the 30th Southeastern Recreation Research Symposium. PARTICIPANTS: One graduate student was hired in September 2006 whose responsibility is to develop criteria by which forest-based ecotourism areas in West Virginia can be identified and evaluated. TARGET AUDIENCES: Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established.

Impacts
This project is anticipated to generate a significant economic, environmental, and social impact. Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established.

Publications

• No publications reported this period

Progress 01/01/06 to 12/31/06

Outputs
A graduate student was hired in September 2006 whose responsibility is to develop criteria by which forest-based ecotourism areas in West Virginia can be identified and evaluated. The following summary of the work we have finished so far includes four aspects. First, we are preparing an annotated bibliography on ecotourism in terms of four general topics: 1) ecotourism theories and conceptual frameworks, 2) ecotourists; 3) ecotourism operators; and 4) ecotourism destinations. Currently, eighty papers relevant to these topics have been reviewed. A total of 500 important papers on ecotourism will be reviewed for this project. Second, we are also preparing a list of ecotourism academics who are lead researchers in the area of ecotourism. Thirty such researchers have been identified. A survey will be conducted among these researchers to achieve a consensus for criteria of ecotourism areas and to obtain the relative importance of elements that a forest-based ecotourism area has, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Third, we have incorporated the AHP into GIS. Finally, GIS data on West Virginia's tourism resources (i.e., forests, national forest, national parks, state parks, etc.) were collected.

Impacts
This project is anticipated to generate a significant economic, environmental, and social impact. Economically, forest-based ecotourism areas identified by this project can be mapped and marketed to attract more tourists. Environmentally, the establishment of a rating system of ecotourism areas can stimulate ecotourism managers and operators to maintain a high quality status for their properties. In addition, tourists' attitudes toward the environment could become more environmentally friendly after visiting these highly maintained ecotourism areas. Socially, a positive tourism image could be formed among the general public for a state or region when more high quality ecotourism areas are established.

Publications

• No publications reported this period