JOURNAL OF TOURISM PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
Year:2012 | Volume:1 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

The purpose of this study is to estimate willingness to pay for coastal tourism and examine the effective factors involved. The research questions of this study include: a) Are the coastal tourists willing to pay? b) What are the effective factors for their willingness to pay? To answer these questions, 1100 questionnaires were distributed among coastal tourists across the beach lines of Mazandaran Province, Iran, in 2010. Willingness to pay was estimated by Contingent Valuation Method, and the factors influencing willingness were examined by Logit Model. The results showed that the average amount each tourist willing to pay was 3188 rials, and the yearly recreational value of the beaches was about 32 billion rials. The results also showed that income, previous experience of payment, and education level had a significant effect on coastal tourists' willingness to pay.

The main aim of this paper is to analyze the major obstacles to the development of tourism industry in the post-revolutionary era. The paper tries to discover the causes of the constraints imposed on tourism industry despite its potentials in Iran. The main hypothesis of the paper is that some important factors other than physical obstacles impede the development of tourism. The theoretical framework of the paper is based on three cultural theories. The methodology of the paper is based on the qualitative methods in the form of semi-structure interviews with leading people in tourism industry, cultural elites and tourism activists who might influence tourism decision making in one way or another. The description and analysis of narratives indicate that the interviewees considered cultural obstacles as important as physical ones in the development of tourism industries. The paper suggests that tourism policy may reach its objectives if it draws on a consensual policy among elites and tourism activists.

This study tries to assess the geomorphosite value of Gian Hill in Nahavand plain using Reynard Method, field investigations and questionnaires. Of the three kinds of values in Reynard Method (scientific value, added value, and combination value), the study results showed that combination value had the highest rank. High scores of global and educational importance standards, where the score of educational factor was 0.91, caused combination values to get the highest score. Added value was ranked next. Existence of various springs, Gian forest, genetic reserve, and discovery of ancient monument contributed to the highest rank of combination value. Scientific value received the lowest score because of the integrity of sub factors. Overall, the mean value was 0.68, which shows the considerable suitability of the geomorphosite under study for the attraction of tourists and the development of tourism in the region.

Climate Index for Tourism (CIT), introduced in 2008, evaluates the climate quality based on physical, aesthetic and thermal aspects and their relationship to the tourist’s satisfaction and decision. This study applies CIT in the Iranian context through the use of a questionnaire in order to test and prioritize each of the thermal, physical and aesthetic variables in the city of Bandar-e Anzali. The measurement of temperature, sunshine, rain and wind indicated that these parameters had a significant role in attracting tourists, while their inappropriateness reduced tourists’ satisfaction greatly. The CIT evaluation showed that the months of May and June were the best months for tourists in the city of Bandar-e Anzali due to comfortable temperature, moderate heat, scattered clouds, low rainfall and pleasant breeze.

The success of a tourism destination is depended on reinforcement of persuasive elements and elimination of factors which discourage tourists to select that destination. Tourist's perception of risk is a disincentive factor that influences tourist's travel intention to a destination. But it should be noted that different genders may have different perception of similar risks. That is why present study primarily aimed to classify different dimension of risks which perceived by inbound tourists who visited Isfahan and also tried to determine the role of gender in perception of different risk dimensions. The statistical population of the study is inbound tourists who visited Isfahan during April and March of 2012. A sample of 300 tourists has been selected by convenience sampling method. A self-administrated questionnaire with 29 items has been used to gathering data. The results of exploratory factor analysis identified four types of risks which have been perceived by tourists who visited Isfahan. These include health, socio-cultural, political, and economic risks. Also the results indicate that female tourists perceived more risks for traveling to Isfahan than males. Finally some of empirical suggestions have been offered.

Increasing competition forced many industries, especially tourism industry to adopt new marketing paradigm, “relationship marketing”. In this environment, tourism industries have been forced to change their reaction to market. Therefore, it is not unexpected, when implementing the relationship marketing programs, that they may face many barriers. In this paper, we try to survey barriers of relationship marketing in tourism industry. The study is applied target wise, and to collect required data, interviews with experts and questionnaires were employed. Using fuzzy TOPSIS and based on comments received from experts of tourism industry, the main barriers of marketing i.e. individual, organizational, managerial, motivational and structural factors were ranked. The results showed that motivational barriers were the most important and organizational, individual, structural, and managerial barriers were ranked as less important respectively. Finally, the components of each of the barriers were ranked as well.

The impact of second home tourism is divided into three categories: economic, social and environmental. The main focus of this paper is the social impact of second home tourism. The study analyzes social capital by comparing two rural areas. To collect the data, a research are made questionnaire with Chronbach Alpha reliability of 0.78 was used. Stratified random sampling was used to select the sample which consistied of 228 people settling in Siyavaraz (with second homes) and Lirehsar (without second homes) for at least 15 years. The results showed that social capital in one village was not significantly different from the one in the other village. However, details showed that the level of formal social participation, social trust and institutional trust was higher in Lirehsar (without second homes) than in Siyavaraz (with second homes). On the other hand, level of literacy and rate of income were higher in Siyavarz than in Liresar. The study suggests further research in this area as second homes with positive economic effects and negative social effects seem contradictory.