TOURISM AND DEVELOPMENT
Year:2018 | Volume:7 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:10

Health tourism can play an important role in tourism development. Considering the low cost of treatment in Iran compared to other countries and the presence of a large number of experienced and diverse medical professionals in this country, with accurate planning and marketing, many health tourists can be attracted to the Iran. In this research, the impact of integrated marketing and advanced information technology communication on brand equity (brand image, perceived brand and brand loyalty) in health tourism has been studied. The present research is applied research in terms of its purpose and in terms of research method, it is a descriptive survey. The statistical population of the study was tourists from Tehran Mehr Hospital. Statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS and Amos softwares, and the regression method was used to test the hypothesis path analysis. The Findings of this research show that integrated marketing communications have an impact on brand image and perceived quality, and advanced technology has a positive and significant impact on brand image, brand perceived quality, and brand loyalty. Brand image of the city, perceived quality of service and brand loyalty, promote the brand value of the city, and these factors have significant impact on attracting health tourists.

Medical tourism is one the most significant fields related to tourism, which is now considered by many developed and developing countries. Before planning on developing this industry, it is essential to identify its weaknesses and strengths. The current research is a cross-sectional and analytical-descriptive study, the aim of which is to assess the quality of services provided by 4 significant hospitals in Qom city to compare them together and identify their weaknesses and strengths. The importance of the criteria was determined by 18 experts (3 physicians, 5 tourism activists, 10 foreign students) and Fuzzy AHP method, and qualitative assessment of services was done by completing 100 questionnaires by patients. Then, the hospitals were ranked by TODIM method. Due to the results, some cases such the lack of new equipment, Imbalance in price and quality of residential centers near the hospital, etc. are weaknesses, and the others such price and quality of medical services, suitable performance in treatment, etc. are strengths.

Each organization has missions and goals set up to achieve them, and it has responsibilities to ensure that the goals are achieved. One of these tasks is to put the organization in line with its goals and strategies. For this purpose, a functional management model is needed that includes criteria and components appropriate to the organization's requirements. Of course, different models for organizational performance management have been provided by the thinkers of this field, which organizations should use in accordance with their mission, structure and type of organization, so hotels are not excluded from this rule. And they should look for a model with the appropriate criteria for their particular characteristics. Regarding this issue, in the present study, by first reviewing articles, researches, books and various sources, criteria for managing organizational performance in the hotel industry were extracted in three general categories of propulsion, dimensions and performance results. Then, these criteria were given to the experts and through the Delphi fuzzy method and in four stages, 35 criteria were approved and finalized. In order to prioritize the criteria, the logistic-fuzzy preferential programming approach was used and all the criteria were weighed and prioritized.

This study aims to explore the impacts of brand image on price, trust, and value on online hotel booking intentions (case study: hotels in Isfahan). The study is a descriptive correlational research. The statistical population includes all domestic travelers to Isfahan with previous experience of booking hotels online. Sample size was determined according to the Cochran formula, yielding 384. Nonprobability convenience sampling was used. The standard questionnaires were used as the data collection instrument. Content validity was confirmed by experts. Furthermore, construct, convergent, and discriminant validity were established through factor analysis, Average Variance Extracted (AVE), and factor loadings. Also, both Cronbach’ s alpha coefficient and composite reliability exceeded 0. 7. Items were rated on a five-point Likert scale. The data were analyzed using the Smart PLS software package. The results indicate that brand image influences both perceived price and trust. Moreover, perceived price influences perceived value directly and buying intentions via the mediating impact of perceived value. Additionally, according to the results, impacts perceived value while having an indirect impact on buying intention. Finally, perceived value was found to impact buying.

One of the most important economic policy goals in Iran is the fair and equitable income distribution among classes of people as well as different areas, and in this regard, the channels and many factors can be effective in the income distribution and its improvement. Based on available economic fundamentals, one of strategies to improve the distribution of income is tourism development. Therefore, in this study, there has been investigated the role and effects of tourism development on income distribution in the provinces of Iran during of period 2005-2015 using panel data method. Based on the results of this study, urbanization rate, human development index, increasing passengers and the increasing proportion of truism credit to provincial credit have a positive impact on income distribution. Also, studying the value added indicates that tourism development in the province provides evidence of Kuznets hypotheses confirmation.

Tourism is a major sector of the global economy, and it is strongly influenced by climate. A pillar of the tourism development in each city is having favorable climatic condition and determining favorable climate of the times for travel on the city. This study aims to evaluate tourism Kerman comfortable climate and providing monthly calendar of tourism are done. To study the climate of comfort in Kerman first extracted seven figures on climate parameters required monthly synoptic stations in Kerman 16-years period (1378-1393) by using excel. And then the analysis, processing and preparation of databases is calculated TCI's value separately for months. Finally time-place distribution map of climate comfort was drawn by using IDW in the ArcGIS. The results of this study show that in Ordibehesht the highest priority Kerman tourism climate comfort features and is ideal descriptive then Mehr and Farvardin of the same features are described. The lowest priority for the month of Tir and then Mordad, Day and Khordad. According to the time and place conditions, the province has a feature that in both warm and cold conditions, part of the province has suitable climatic conditions, so that in the warm seasons the northern cities and in the cold seasons the southern cities have the ideal situation in the TCI (Tourism Climate Index).

The purpose of this research is to assess possible environmental impacts in order to plan for the organization of tourism areas in Safaei Khoy area. This is accomplished by balancing the element of man, space and activity, if the three elements are balanced and coordinated in planning, then the velocities of the changes and the reduction of negative effects in both the construction phase and the In the phase of exploitation, tourism projects will increase. This is a way to increase awareness of environmental values and can be used as a means of financing the natural areas and increasing their economic importance. To assess the impacts of the tourism project in the study area, three macro criteria (environmental, economic, social and cultural) were defined that identified for each of them the criteria that reflect the effects of tourism development. In the next stage, a questionnaire was developed for assessing the effects and was completed by 32 academic and executive experts. The information analysis model is a modified Leopold model based on the region's conditions. The results of the research showed that if the projects of the tourism project in Safaeieh region were implemented, the emphasis was on providing improvement projects in which the project had destructive consequences but had no significant negative effects.

in addition to Today, recognizing tourism attractions for the tourism development in each region, recognizing the tourists characteristics is also necessary. An influential feature is the tourists motivation to travel to specific areas. Events that occur in a tourism destination, including cultural-artistic festivals, sporting events and ritual festivals are one of the important factors for attracting tourists. The Cultural and Ritual Festival of Rose held in the mountain regions of Kashan in the spring annualy And attracts thounds of tourist. In this research, effective indicators have been identified in the motivations of tourists, tourists' loyalty and comparison of the mentioned indices in Qamsar and Niasar. The method was descriptive-analytical and surveying, the data were collected by questionaire and were modelling and analyzed by Spss & Amos software. The results indicated that the six investigated variables showed semantic relationship by the tourists' motivation highly, which are respectively: Shopping; new experience and cultural festival; social and enjoyment; enjoying the nature of the area and relax. Also, the tourists motivation with their loyalty showed a good meaning with a regression weight of 0. 65. The results of the T test between two independent samples showed that the indices of enjoying the nature of the area, the new experience and the loyalty of tourists has a higher mean in the Qamsar city.

The present study, with a futuristic approach identifies the most important affecting factors and the extent and way of influencing these factors on each other and on the future status of sustainable tourism in Kerman. This research is based on new futurist methods which is carried out using a combanition of quantitative and qualitative modeld. Due to the nature of this research, structural analysis, MIC MAC and Delphi have been used. In this regard, after holding initial discussions with fifteen elite and tourism experts of Kerman as the statistical population of the study, 50variables were identified in the form of four general dimensions as initial variables. In the following, the initial variables were defined in the framework of the cross effects matrix in the MICMAC foresight software. The results show that what can be understood from the state of the dispersion page of the variables indicates the system instability, with most of the variables dispersed around the diagonal axis of the screen. Finally, due to the high direct and indirect impact, ten major factors are influential as key factors in the future of sustainable tourism development in Kerman. Among factors, the most influential factor in the development of sustainable tourism in Kerman is competitiveness, and the removal of travel barriers, the expansion of tourismrelated spaces, environmental degradation as a result of the over-construction of second homes, and participation and solidarity at a later stage is important.

The current research comprises two main purposes. First, to measure ethnocultural empathic skills of front-line employees of Parsian hotel groups in order to improve likely relevant weaknesses. Second, to verify interrelationships between ethnocultural empathic skills, job satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behavior variables. To this end, empathic skills were measured through ethnocultural empathic scale and its four dimensions (Wang et al., 2003). Methodologically this study in terms of the goal, nature of data analysis, and method of data analysis is an applied research, descriptive, and quantitative, respectively. The data were gathered through two different self-reported questionnaires distributed among two different statistical populations of hotel employees (for empathy and satisfaction variables: 162 samples) and their colleagues/ supervisors (for organizational citizenship behavior variable: 176 samples). Reliability and validity of the research were confirmed through interview with experts, structural equation modeling, and Cronbach’ s alpha. The findings of structural equation modeling indicate that employees’ empathic skills have no significant impact on citizenship behavior. Furthermore, job satisfaction exerts a strong influence on empathic skills with a coefficient of 0. 343.