Urban Tourism
Year:2018 | Volume:5 | Issue:1|Papers Count:11

Measuring the tourists’ satisfaction from the services quality for tourist destinations is very important. Because the distinction in this quality will attract more tourists’ attention to the destination and economic prosperity of cities. In this study, the factors affecting the tourists’ satisfaction from the environs vacationland of Abidar Park in Sanandaj have been evaluated. The research method is descriptive-analytical and it is applied in terms of purpose. The statistical population was tourists who chose environs vacationland of Abidar as their tourism destination. The sample size was 384, and the sampling was simple random. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. Results of Pearson test showed that Abidar service quality (accessibility, attractiveness, destination image, and facilities) was statistically significant and positively correlated with tourist satisfaction. So that the correlation between attractiveness, accessibility, mental image, and facilities with the satisfaction of tourists was 0. 845, 0. 831, 0. 762 and 0. 691 respectively, which shows that these factors had the highest correlation with the tourists’ satisfaction. Also, the results of multivariate regression model indicated a positive significant relationship between the variables of Abidar environs service quality and the tourists’ satisfaction.

Environmental crises have positive and negative impacts on tourism, whose positive impacts include opportunities for black, cultural and religious tourism. This study is to identify the opportunities created by the earthquake in January 2003 for the tourism development and the effective use of these opportunities for the development of tourism in the city of Bam. This research is descriptive–analytic, and the method of data collection is documentary and field. In order to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, experts’ opinions and Cronbach's alpha were used, and the collected data were analyzed by SPSS. The sample population is 270 tourists who arrived in Bam in 2014. The distribution method of the random sample population is simple random. Findings show that the people over the world know Bam with the citadel and earthquake, and the earthquake has become a part of the town’s identity. As a result, the earthquake ruins have created opportunities for the tourism development of in Bam, which has not yet been effectively implemented. However, directors emphasize the full reconstruction approach in order to restore the tourism markets and products of destinations tourism. In this approach, tourists who are increasing due to changes in destination characteristics are being ignored, such as those who are interested in visiting catastrophic sites and earthquake failures, or those who wish to see the victims’ day. In general, the Bam earthquake has changed the characteristics of the town’s tourists and created new opportunities for tourism development.

Tourism planning requires understanding the interaction between supply and demand and their mutual effect on each other; hence, tourism destination planning is one of the most important factors for development planning. In the tourism system, only demand and demand increase is not important. But in supply, destination management needs to coordinate and co-operate with the tourism elements. Meanwhile, network analysis is one of the most up-to-date and most efficient analyses that, through the use of small hotspots, boosts their power over the top centers. Due to the weakness of gravity and the dispersion of many tourism destinations, organizing in a network will help to achieve these goals; hence, network analysis and its applications for regional tourism development are essential. Until now, the actual position of Kashan town, despite the cultural and tourist potential and attractions, has not yet been determined, and the dispersion of attractions and proximity to metropolises such as Tehran and Isfahan have caused most tourists to have a one-day trip to this city. In this study, in order to increase the competitiveness of these attractions in the framework of network theory, descriptive-analytic research method was used and data were collected using field survey method. The statistical population consisted of 1, 164, 124 tourists from Kashan over the past year. According to the Cochran sampling model, the data was collected from the sample of 483 people. The data were analyzed using SPSS, GIS, UCINET, and NODEXL software, and its density, degree, contrast, transmissibility, and E-I were computed, and gravitational graphs were illustrated. Results indicate that the attraction connections are weak and low, which is why most tourists visit the main attractions of the region. As a result, the deposition of tourists’ spending in the region is low and inadequate for the region development; hence, in managing regional development and tourism, efforts should be made to reduce this gap by strengthening the link between the region’s attractions, and provide a background for optimal use of the region’s attractions by establishing a full interconnected network.

Urban tourism formation is a spatial pattern that has different outcomes in cities. One of the most important issues in the increasing tendency to cities, is the increase of tourists and the duration of their stay in cities, as well as efforts to provide appropriate environmental and human conditions; therefore, the tourists’ willingness to remain more, is an important index in assessing the cities’ capacity to properly utilize the tourism benefits. In this research, Rasht has been chosen as one of the country’s tourist destinations for many years as a case study. Since it seems that one of the main problems in this city’s tourism is the tourists’ short stay, in this study, using the qualitative method, the reasons for the tourists’ low tendency to stay in this city are studied based on basic theory. Based on targeted sampling, 43 tourists, experts and citizens were selected as samples. The techniques used to collect the data and information were focused on semi-structured interviews and field observations, and interviews continued until the theoretical saturation stage was over. Based on the basic theory, the data were analyzed in three stages of coding, and extraction of seven nuclear categories including advertising, quality of residential centers, costs, management and planning, creating attractions, cultural heritage and access to places were some results.

Urban areas are often considered an important tourist destination due to historical and cultural attractions. In the modern tourism industry of the world, a destination is not attractive to tourists only due to historic sites. The Ferdowsi tomb complex located in the historic city of Tous is one of the most famous historical attractions that, despite welcoming the tourists and the attention of the Cultural Heritage Organization (as the main trustee of the tourism affairs of Iran) have not yet found a special place among the tourist destinations. One of the main reasons for this issue is neglecting the key elements of the destination and not identifying and evaluating them in order to improve the quality of tourism management in this town, which has been addressed in this study. The research method is descriptive-analytical, and data was collected by library methods and completion of a questionnaire by tourists. The statistical population of the study consisted of domestic tourists visiting Tous in 2016 with simple random sampling of 383 people. The questionnaire was calculated by employing the five-component Likert scale in the form of 6 components and 19 questions, and was analyzed by using the T-test and methods Analysis of utility. Results showed that tourism destination management in Tous was not generally successful, and tourists had scores below the average for most questions. Accordingly, the best status belongs to the component of destination tourism attractions with an average rating of 4. 07, and the most unfavorable component is human resource management and price. The components of access, the tourists’ mental image, and welfare facilities which have a relatively favorable situation.

One of the main causes of tourism recession in Iran is lack of informing as well as inappropriate advertising in the domestic and foreign arenas. Considering the role of advertising in attracting and retaining tourists, and the many sums spent on advertising every year, the correct use of credit and its effectiveness is important. This research is applied in terms of its purpose, and descriptive-survey in terms of nature. The effectiveness of advertising in this research has been evaluated in four dimensions: attention, interest, willingness and action. The statistical population of this study was tourists who had chosen Ramsar as their tourism destination during the period of March, 2015. In this study, the sample size of 384 people was calculated using Cochran's formula. For analyzing the data, the structural equation modeling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to analyze the data in two SPSS and LISRE software packages. Findings showed that visual advertising is effective on people’s attention, inclining and eventually choosing a destination, but has no effect on the tourists’ interest in destinations. Also, the effect of paying attention to demographic variables on the advertising effectiveness is another result of this research. Among the visual ads tested, TV, billboards, internet advertising, brochure, and magazines have the most important role in attracting tourists. In addition to this, it should be noted that marketing planning and advertising of tourism should be carried out continuously and in a systematic way and constantly updated with global and international methods with a regional perspective.

Despite the vast benefits of tourism industry in improving people’s economic and social conditions, if the expansion of this industry does not accompany with environmental policies and plans, also does not emphasize the sustainability of development, and is not considered as a comprehensive dynamic range, it can have many negative effects on the environment in the medium-run. In this regard, environmental impact assessment studies are among the most appropriate ways to achieve the goals of sustainable development. The sample region of Darreh-Gerdoo with an area of 100 hectares is located in the south of the Arak city. In order to assess the environmental impacts of the present research, first, the existing status of this region was identified, then by collecting the required information (including geographical, climatic, geological, environmental, economic, social, cultural, etc. location of the region) the effects of project implementation in the two phases of construction and operation was determined. Also, based on the checklist analysis, the effects of implementing or not implementing the project with environmental considerations were investigated, and the Iranian matrix (modified Leopold Matrix) method was selected for environmental assessment of the project. Results showed that the project effect in the construction phase is. 95, in the exploitation phase is. 63, and its algebraic sum is. 57; therefore, if all environmental considerations and continuous monitoring are observed, it will be possible to implement this project.

Tourism as a civilizational phenomenon is associated with numerous economic, social, cultural and environmental influences, and its prosperity and development are due to several factors such as favorable climate conditions, rich culture of nations, spectacular landscapes, utilization of communication networks, accessibility of recreation centers and, most important of all, historical works and civilizations of the past. Meanwhile, Ardabil is one of the provinces with a great potential in tourism, and the evaluation of its geographical characteristics of tourism, and its historical attractions and architecture is a step towards the development of its deprived areas. Recognition of existing tourist attractions and ranking tourist areas are the important dimensions and initial steps for tourism planning. In this research, based on library resources and field observations, in order to rank Ardebil towns in terms of tourist attractions, 19 indices have been employed in three groups of geo-tourism attractions, historical–architectural attractions, and wildlife and protected areas. Analytic hierarchy process was used to determine the indices weights, and Prometheus method was used to rank towns. Among the indices used in performing the ranking, the presence of springs and mineral springs, the most important and most influential index is considered among the indices of geo-tourism and historical–architectural. Results indicate that despite the lack of some important historical–architectural attractions, Sarein has been ranked first in the towns of the province, and Ardebil, Meshkinshahr, Namin, Parsabad, Bilehsavar, Nair, Germi, Kowsar, and Khalkhal are in the next ranks of this comparison. Finally, suggestions have been made to increase the tourist attraction by reference to the study results.

Today, the tourism industry is one of the most important activities of income and employment generation at the international level. Meanwhile, the important groups of stakeholders in this domain are communities and residents in tourism destinations that both are much affected by this industry and affect its development. In this research, we tried to examine the main factors affecting the level of local communities’ satisfaction with tourism development using the path analysis method and the test of a conceptual model extensively used in literature. The main variables due to research questions are cultural, economic, social and environmental dimensions in host societies and the positive and negative perceived effects by local residents. Also, attempts have been made to determine how these variables affect each other, and their effects on the level of host community’s satisfaction with tourism. Factor analysis was used to investigate the validity, reliability and identification of the main influential variables. In order to investigate the relationship between the hidden variables of this research on each other, structural equation modeling was used. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 23 and AMOS 18 software. Results indicate that one of the important factors in satisfaction’s measure, is the social dimension is social satisfaction with the effect coefficient of 0. 9, and the positive perceived effects have a direct effect on satisfaction with the effect of 0. 774; that is, the social effects and, consequently, the positive effects that local residents perceive have been affecting the local communities and encouraging them to participate in activities related to tourism development.

From the second half of the twentieth century tourism services industry become as one of the Key factors in social and economic progress in many countries, and tourism safety and security is known as one of the most important needs of its growth and development. The issue of this research focuses on the growth of informal tourism accommodations as one of the threats to safety and security of tourism industry in Iran. Research in terms of purpose is applied research and in terms of data processing is a mixed research type (qualitative-quantitative) within the framework of Q-Methodology. In qualitative study stage any evidence and scientific work related to the topic were collected as data source and finally extracted 25 general attitudes towards informal tourist accommodations in Iran. In the quantitative study stage was participated 40 people in the discourse space for Q-sort and then went to work cluster analysis methods and discriminant analysis. The findings of the study included 4 mental patterns for regulating of informal tourist accommodations. The clustering of participants in 4 groups is as follows: first group 6 people, second group 26 people, third group 2 people, and the fourth group 4 people. Of the 25 Q-statements in 20 cases there was a significant difference between attitudes of 4 groups or clusters. Priorities of mental patterns in 4 groups are as follows: first group “stakeholder training requirements”, second group as the majority group and the dominant discourse “Interaction and inter-organizational coordination”, third group “stakeholder training” and “integrated management approach”, fourth group "Stakeholder training" and "Police controlling actions".