Assessment of Eco-tourism Potentials to Enhance Tourist Attractiveness in Asir Mountains, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

This study investigates the assessment of eco-tourism potentials to enhance tourist attractiveness in Asir Mountains. Eco-tourism seeks to support the tourism landscape. This occursby its interaction with the historical, archaeological, and architectural or immaterial heritage.The interaction transpires also with the geographical potential, with an emphasis on environmental protection and sustainability.The study is based on various tourist facades and environmental diversity in Asir Mountains.Tourism development is a comprehensive undertaking involving many sectors. These are the challenges to which the country's tourism should respond in order to promote several aspects. These encompass domestic tourism, quality, the spatial pattern of tourism resources, climate comfort and natural disaster possibility. Such promotion is based on the analysis of collected multi-source datasets and the geo-morphological features of the area. Besides, a GIS database, comprising geological and topographical maps and satellite images, is created.

The main results of this study arethe uniquenature, the geological and geo-morphological features, as well as the eco-cultural diversity which can be regarded as an influential factor in the development of eco-tourism. The findings of the study provided valuable insights into the role of environmental diversity in achieving tourism. Moreover, they examined the interrelationship between tourism and environmental diversity.