Introduction
The development of tourism activities in desert ecosystems is one of the most important strategies for sustainable development in arid and semiarid regions which can lead to their economic prosperity through proper planning. Incorrect policies directly and indirectly effect on the destruction of the natural environment and more severely on drylands and deserts. Conversely, appropriate policies can prevent the destruction of land, with the least impact being the saving of financial resources. Adoption of policies compatible with arid and desert ecosystems requires an understanding of the complexity and interaction between existing natural and social systems and the prospect of dependent ecosystem behavior.
In addition to attractions such as the historic castle, wells, and fascinating geomorphological phenomena such as long sand dunes, salt lakes and various wind forms, the Maranjab area has a wide range of attractions, including geotourism sites that can attract nature-based tourists at national and regional levels,. But it has not yet been able to stabilize its position. In this regard, the present study by planning of scenarios of desert tourism development in the form of site selection of salt hotel and safari park can provide the solutions to comply with the conditions of arid ecosystems. Therefore, the principles of this study are based on recognizing the potentials and capacities of Maranjab area and planning and managing the desert tourism in the form of developmental scenarios based on the location of safari park and salt hotel.
Materials and Methods
The study area in the present study is a part of Maranjab region with geographical location of 51 degrees 15 minutes to 52 degrees 8 minutes east longitude and 34 degrees 5 minutes 34 degrees 35 minutes north latitude in the Aran and Bidgol political district in Isfahan province is located. This region covers an area of 256763 hectares, with an area of 850 meters above sea level. The long-term average of annual precipitation in the region is 111.4 mm, and July and January, respectively, with average temperatures of 33.25 and 3.51 degrees Celsius are the warmest and coldest months of the year.
The present research is applied one and its methodology is based on analysis of spatial and field data analysis in ArcGIS software and the analysis of questionnaire data in Expert Choice software. The research process includes the edition of proposed scenarios in the form of salt hotel and safari park, identifying the criteria and indicators for each scenario separately and collecting their data, determining the ranking and ranking of the indicators by using a  questionnaire and prioritize them using hierarchical analysis Processing model, preparing the weighted maps on the indices and criteria  and integrating them according to their weight, and finally zoning the land suitability of studied area and prioritizing the zones for land allocation to each scenario. Site locating of mentioned scenarios were conducted according to criteria of accessibility, landscape, environmental protection and limitation (risks) and access to raw materials at the same time. After determining the weight of the mentioned criteria and indicators using the hierarchical analysis model, weighting map was prepared by applying them to the digital layers. Finally, the combination of all weighted layers in terms of their weight resulted in the preparation of the land suitability layer of Safari Park and Salt Hotel. The final map of each scenario was classified according to its breakpoints and classified into 5 zones.
Discussion and Results
In the Salt Hotel location scenario, accessibility criteria, landscape, natural resource conservation, restriction and access to raw materials were evaluated as the highest and lowest scores for accessibility criteria with a weight of 0.495 and raw materials with a weight of 0.044, respectively. Also, the results of the weighted maps of the Salt Hotel Scenario showed that the range of scores to distance from 0 to 2415, distance to tourist attractions from 0.0158 to 1305, distance from residential centers from 0 to 1002, land use from 0 to 234, vegetation from 0 to 0529, geological formations from 0.001 to 0.0137, wind erosion from 0.0016 to 0.0135, probability of surface moisture from 0 to 0948 and distance to salt mine from 0 to 0.044.
In the scenario of Safari Park location, accessibility criteria, land use, environmental protection and evaluation criterion were assigned scores of 0.418, 0.326, 0.161, and 0.093, respectively. Among indices 1, non-vegetation components with 0.761 weight and distance to mines with weight of 0.09 had the highest and lowest scores, respectively. The results of weighted maps of Safari Park scenario showed that the range of scores to distance from residential centers from 0 to 22005, distance to communication routes from 0 to 1299, distance to medical centers from 0 to 0214, land use from 0 to 0. 0.253, vegetation from 0 to 123, wind erosion from 0.002 to 0.0153, marshland from 0 to 0626, aqueduct from 0 to 0223 and mines from 0 to 0.0084 are fluctuates.
Conclusions
The final weighted land suitability map of the Maranjab desert tourism development scenarios showed that the Salt Hotel scenario had a score range between 0. 3208 to 0.8351 and a Safari Park scenario had a score range 0.2294 to 0.8351. According to the land suitability map, respectively, 959 and 45403 ha (0.3745 and 17.6828%) of Maranjab area, respectively, are prime areas for allocation to Salt Hotel and Safari Park having very good capability. According to the results of the Salt Hotel scenario, the first priority with an area of over 345 hectares and the second area with an area of 614 hectares are the most suitable land for the Maranjab area. These two zones all correspond to the wandering island area and within the salt lake. Land allocation to these zones can be related to the criteria of access to roads, landscapes, lack of surface moisture, and the multitude of tourist attractions near Wander Island. According to the final results of the scenario, the first wide-ranging Safari Park has an area of 16910 hectares, which generally corresponds to the northern sand dunes of the Long Sand. This adaptation is due to the relative proximity of these lands to the road as well as the high score of sandy soils.