Ecotourism is a form of tourism to relatively undisturbed natural areas for the main purposes of admiring them and learning more about their habitats. Ecotourism also seeks to reduce its impacts on the area visited. It also contributes to the conservation of natural areas and the sustainable development of adjacent areas and communities, generating further awareness among resident and nearby populations and visitors.

For achievement to a sustainable ecotourism development it’d be required to have an excellent relation with the nature. And for this purpose it should be considered some objectives including; Understanding the nature, Conversation with the surrounding environment (ecosystem), Companionship with the nature’s speed and Unification between the nature and human.

According to these concepts, it has been choose an ancient site at the middle of Mazandaran forests, north of Iran and southern coast of Caspian Sea, with a very beautiful landscape view and historical monuments, named as Abbas Abad complex. Some of attractive objects of this site are; a very beautiful winding road, a whirling stream, with a historical dam built on it at the age of Safavi kingdom (17th century), some ancient buildings and a palace within beautiful gardens around the dam reservoir. At the time being there is a small restaurant built near the reservoir.

The main objective of this project is achievement such a design in which an excellent tourism development goes to plan considering both tourist attraction and environmental protection points of view. The main components of the design are as follows:

Restore the status quo as a short term program

The short term plan has focused on rehabilitation of existing buildings and remediation of infrastructures of Abbas Abad complex to serve responsible and efficient services providing the tourism standards of comfort and needs.

Development of the sustainable tourism as the long term design

The long term plan has been arranged for establishment of a sustainable ecotourism through the site. To achieve to this purpose it has been put in consideration all academic approaches and experiences of stakeholders, tourists companies and environmental protection agencies. The main components of this term of design were:

A deck extended to the nature territory.

Some specific pass ways for cycling, tracking and hiking through the stream.

A specific site to maintain a quiet and calm conditions around the lake and exciting and fast through the stream. A space crossing over the boundary between the nature and human.

Accommodations that are in two types, Camping area and Hotel suits that are designed to focus on simplicity and having an organic feel to better blend the building with its environment and not take away from the lake and forest views.

Chapter 01 - Introduction

1-1 Introduction

1-2 Research Background

1-3 Research Purpose and Objectives

1-4 Methodology and Structure

1-5 Summary and report structure

1-6 Definition of Words and Scientific Terms (glossary)

Chapter 02 - The Tourism in Iran and Worldwide

2-1 Defining Tourism and Investigating the Well-known Theories

2-1-1 Definition

2-1-2 Etymology

2-1-3 World tourism statistics and rankings

2-1-4 Definition Of The Key Words

2-2 Different Categories Of Tourism

2-2-1 Valene Smith’s Categories

2-2-2 Chuck Y. Gee’s Categories of tourism

2-2-3 Ecotourism

2-3 The History Of Tourism worldwide And In Iran

2-3-1 The History Of Tourism Worldwide

2-3-2 The History Of Tourism In Iran

2-4 Tourism In Mazandaran

Chapter 03- The Necessity of Sustainable Tourism

3-1 Introduction

3-2 Defining Sustainable Tourism and Studying Researches and Theories

3-2-1 Definition

3-2-2 Stakeholders

3-2-3 The triple bottom line of sustainable tourism

3-2-4 Sustainable Tourism in the Third World

3-2-5 Problems with Sustainable Tourism in the Third World

3-2-6 Environmental Impacts

3-2-7 Improvements to Sustainable Tourism in the Third World

3-3 History of Sustainable Tourism

3-3-1 Sustainable development - Sustainable Tourism

3-3-2 Sustainable Tourism today

3-4 Studying Examples of Tourism with Sustainable Approach

3-4-1 Geometric hot springs - Villarrica national park - Villarrica, Chile

3-4-2 Eco Hotel Endemico - Baja, Mexico

3-4-3 Pristine eco POD hotel - Switzerland

3-4-4 White POD Alpine ski resort - Monthey, Switzerland

3-5 Enviromental Impacts of Tourism

Chapter 4: Physical plan of the design

4-1 Introduction

4-2 Physical plan of the design

4-3 Landscape part

4-4 Summary

Chapter 05 - Studying the Site of the Design

5-1 Introduction - Describing the Site

5-2 Analyzing the Site of the Design

Chapter 06 - The Design

6-1 Introduction

6-2 Design Concept 6-3 Design

6-3-1 Accomodation Zone

6-3-1-1 The Headquarters

6-3-1-2 Hotel

6-3-1-3 The Suites

6-3-1-4 Camping Area

6-3-2 Peace Zone

6-3-3 Adventure Zone

6-4 Summary

References

Olerokonga, T (1992). “What about the Maasai?”. In Focus 4: 6-7

Monbiot, G (1994). No Man’s Land. London: Macmillan

Reiter, R. R. 1977 The politics of tourism in a French Alpine community. In Hosts and guests: The anthropology of tourism. 2nd Ed. V. Smith, ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

Dodds, Rachel (2012). “Sustainable Tourism: A Hope or a Necessity? The Case of Tofino, British Columbia, Canada”. Journal of Sustainable Development, vol 5, No 5

Liu, Zhenhua (2003) Sustainable tourism development: a critique. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 11 (6). pp. 459-475. ISSN 0966-9582

Websites

http://www.ldoceonline.com

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://www.prm.nau.edu

http://www.euromonitor.com

http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov

http://www.telta.de

http://www.world-tourism.org

http://www.archdaily.com

http://www.inhabitat.com

http://www.letsgochile.com

http://www.we-design.org

http://www.archilovers.com

http://www.freshome.com