Attractions of Ecotourism in Southern Coasts of the Caspian Sea

Beik Mohammadi, Hassan

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Hassan Beik Mohammadi

Associate Professor, Department of Geography, University of Isfahan

Abstract

The Caspian Sea, as the largest lake on the earth, has created many marine and environmental benefits for its surrounding countries, one of which is the existence of favorable environmental conditions and beautiful natural and tourist landscapes on its southern coast, so that Golestan, Mazandaran, and especially Gilan in the north of the country of Iran, forming coasts around 700 km, with many natural tourist attractions such as lush lands, sky-high mountains and forest-covered slopes, Miankaleh wetland, Anzali Lagoon, Noor Parks, Sisangan and Golestan and wildlife habitats, as well as sandy beaches and beautiful and fascinating scenery is one of the largest tourism centers in Iran.
The area also has many other tourist attractions, including historical, cultural, social, therapeutic and recreational, and is on the whole very important in terms of recreational tourism and domestic and foreign ecotourism and absorbtion of enthusiasts of the nature and the sea. It is worth knowing that the main source of all these natural and tourist attractions and even the historical record of habitation and civilization on this land is the existence of the Caspian Sea and its numerous environmental, ecological, climatic and economic effects.
These coasts are among the most favorable regions of Iran for the development of the tourism industry, and in particular summer tourism, annually attracting more than twenty-five million tourists, due to natural and special weather conditions in the summer including pleasant summer temperatures, sunny days, sea water temperature, relative humidity, forest cover and beautiful natural scenery, as well as ease of access to Tehran and other populated regions of Iran, enjoyment of facilities, services and recreational establishments and infrastructures. In this paper, prepared in descriptive and analytical research method, while introducing the natural attractions of tourism of the northern shores, the value and importance of the Caspian Sea in creation of these attractions is shown and, finally, solutions are presented for preservation of these attractiveness and optimal use of them in terms of sustainable development of tourism industry in the region.

Keywords