Journal of Social Studies in Tourism
Year:2021 | Volume:9 | Issue:17|Papers Count:14

The mental image of target places is the most important factor that helps tourists determine their tourism destination, the lack of which may result in limited visits by tourists. Thus, paying attention to the formation of tourism brand is of great importance. Among different cities of Kerman Province, Kerman city is impoverished in terms of infrastructure, facilities, and tourism services. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the influential factors (environmental, social, and economic) in the formation of the tourism brand in rural areas of Kerman city. The required data were collected through document analysis and questionnaires. To this end, the main and complementary factors were set within the framework of two questionnaires concerning the host community (52 persons) and a paired comparison with experts (24 persons). Fuzzy and MABAC hierarchical models were also used to weigh the main factors and rank the villages. The study found that the environmental factor had the highest weight with a coefficient of 0. 676, and economic and social factors had the lowest weight with a coefficient of 0. 213 and 0. 111, respectively, indicating that enough attention has no been paid to economic and social factors in the field of tourism branding. This study's findings could help resolve the major weaknesses found in the city and reinforce its strengths concerning the tourism brand.

The role of internal marketing in employee satisfaction has been empirically investigated in more than 200 researches so far. However, few studies have addressed the role of employees in cultural backgrounds. Taking this literature gap into consideration, this descriptive survey study sought to survey the moderating effect of cultural homogeneity on the relationship between internal marketing and employee satisfaction in the workplace. The study's statistical population comprised the Iranian, Iraqi, Turkish, and Kurdish tourism employees, out of which 338 staff were selected via the available sampling method. The required data were collected through library research and questionnaires. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the collected data. The results of the study indicated that there was a positive correlation between internal marketing and employee satisfaction (0. 53). Moreover, the study's practical and theoretical findings confirmed that cultural homogeneity could further enhance internal marketing and employee satisfaction (0. 678).

Religious tourism plays an important role in Iranian cultural and economic sustainability. Due to the special nature of the Iranian political establishment, this type of tourism provides many potentials for tourism development in different parts of Iran. Making the best use of these capacities requires recognition of the barriers and challenges lying ahead of the development of religious tourism. Therefore, this study set out to identify the challenges facing religious tourism, using thematic analysis (TA) and interpretive structural modeling (ISM). Moreover, the relationship model between the influential factors involved in this regard was extracted at three levels via the thematic network. Finally, MICMAC analysis was conducted to measure the influence power and dependence of the factors. The required data were collected through library research and administering a questionnaire on 15 experts familiar with the subject matter who were selected through purposive sampling, out of whom 11 experts completed the questionnaire. The findings of the study indicated that variables such as lack of attention to the chain of providing religious tourism services, lack of programming, policymaking, and monitoring the religious tourism process, and not allocating budget and financial supports for religious tourism development in Iran played essential and key roles in the non-development of this type of tourism. These variables were placed at the third level of the model that affect the second level variables. It was also found that the variables such as inefficient management of religious tourism facilities and services, inefficient management of religious attractions and events, and improper management of religious tourism marketing were dependent variables that were placed at the first level of the model.

Motivation is considered as the main driving force in tourists’ behavior and an important basis for their decision making. This study sought to examine the ecotourists’ motivations for their travels and the impact of motivations (intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and amotivation) on their intention to revisit the destination according to the self-determined psychological theory. To this end, a questionnaire was administered on 163 visitors of the Soleiman-Tangeh region during the first week of August 2015 who were selected via convenience sampling. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistical methods, mean and one-sample t-test. To examine the relationship between variables, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression analysis were utilized. The findings of the study showed that from among the three forms of ecotourists’ motivation, i. e., intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, amotivation, it was merely the intrinsic motivation that had a significant and positive relationship with the possibility of revisiting the Soleiman-Tangeh region, indicating that an increase in the ecotourists’ intrinsic motivation would increase the chances of revisiting the Soleiman-Tangeh region in the future.

The Arbaeen foot-pilgrimage bears a prominent place in Iranians' religious beliefs. Facing numerous challenges, Arbaeen pilgrims set out this journey should the challenges are met. This study, therefore, deals with the challenges of Iranian pilgrims during the Arbaeen walk and the way they deal with the problem. The required data were collected through "ethnography", using "grounded theory" to analyze the data. To this end, 39 pilgrims who participated in Arbaeen 2018 walk were interviewed along the way to Karbala. The challenges regarding decision-making were summarized in the main category labeled as "the challenges regarding obstacles and lack of requirements". The challenges listed under the "the lack of requirements" includes: "travel expenses, " "ability to walk, " "finding the right (appropriate) fellow traveler", "providing a suitable time for travel", "the possibility of achieving the goal", "travel facilities like transportation, accommodation, food, health, familiarity with the way and destination". The major sub-categories of "obstacles challenges" include: "prohibition made by such actors as the government, employer, training centers, spouse, and parents", "conflicting interests derived from job commitment, child-care commitment, and social pressure generated by fellow citizens and commitment to them", and "feeling insecure".

Participating in tourism activities is the undeniable right of all society members, including people with disabilities. However, sometimes factors related to people with disabilities or inappropriate social environment for acceptance of these people as community members prevent them from participating in tourism activities. In this regard, this study sought to identify such factors (under the title of behavioral factors) and investigate their role in the development of accessible tourism for people with physical disabilities, using a mixed-methods approach in two stages of qualitative (identifying the behavioral indicators and factors through interviews with experts in the field of tourism and disability) and quantitative (designing a questionnaire based on the indicators obtained from the qualitative stage and distributing them among tourists with disabilities in Tehran). The first stage was conducted using the content analysis method and Maxqda2018 software. The partial least squares method and SmartPLS3 software were used at the second stage. The results of the study indicated that the two main categories of behavioral factors, i. e., "Personal factors" (personal characteristics of people with disabilities and their perception of interaction with the environment) and "interpersonal factors" (public responsibility towards people with disability, community education, the dependency of people with disability on another person's assistant along with the development of positive feelings in these people) affected the development of accessible tourism for people with physical disabilities.

Tourism destinations are very significant in today's competitive market. Moreover, brand management and development have become increasingly important in the tourism industry, with most of the active companies in this field are trying to attract more tourists by creating a positive and favorable image of tourist destinations in tourists' minds through branding and brand architecture. This descriptive-survey study, therefore, set out to identify the influential factors in the management of the brand architecture of Alborz province's tourist destinations. The study's statistical population comprised of all experts and marketing managers of Alborz Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization, out of which 200 participants were selected as the sample size using Cochran's formula. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire. AMOS software was used to analyze the collected data. The study's findings showed that the status of brand architecture management in Alborz province was moderate. It was also found that other aspects of brand architecture, i. e., having a long-term vision, filling the gap between supply and demand, prioritizing customer segmentation, having a moderate status, and having an efficient tourism strategy, were poor.

This survey study's main goal was to present a taxonomy of tourists visiting Mashhad according to their accommodation type. The required data were collected by administering a researcher-developed questionnaire on domestic tourists who visited Mashhad in the winter of 2019. The accommodation centers' typology was done based on qualitative typology and taxonomy. The former was done based on cost and grade criteria, and the latter was carried out by ''two stages clustering analysis ''. The study's findings indicated that most of Mashhad tourists (97%) were considered loyal visitors who had visited there frequently. Measured in terms of individualistic-collective criterion, the visitors' travel style was found to be collective (81%). On the other hand, based on the Institutional-Independent criterion, the visitors' travel style was Independent (68%). Taking the ethnographic factors and the characteristics of the visitors' travel into account, three types of tourists were identified as follows: ''non-individual less frequent visitors'' (37%), '' short-stay costly visitors" ' (36%), and '' frequent frugal visitors'' (26%). The first group accommodated in guesthouses, rental houses, and low-grade hotels and hotel-apartments. The second group accommodated in high-grade hotels, hotel-apartments, and guesthouses; the third group accommodated in their relative's houses or personal homes.

The purpose of this descriptive-analytical study was to investigate the role of novel potentials of handicrafts on production boost and the development of tourism target markets in Lorestan province. The study's statistical population comprised 620 experts, specialists, and researchers in the field of handicrafts of the Lorestan Province, out of which 237 participants were randomly selected via convenience sampling based on Cochran's formula. The research instrument was a 31-item questionnaire. To analyze the collected data, SPSS 22 software and AMOS software, Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, and structural equation modeling were used. The study's findings indicated that the new potentials of handicrafts had been effective on production boost and development of tourism target markets in Lorestan province.

This study sought to investigate how by-standing tourists evaluate other tourists' misbehavior in a shared service environment and how this evaluation may influence a tourist's overall experience. The required data were obtained through conducting interviews and administering a questionnaire on 411 tourists who visited Mashhad in 2019. Hypothesis testing was performed by structural equation modeling. This study revealed that tourists went through an evaluative process of primary and secondary appraisals that ended in active or passive coping behaviors. It was also found that perceived powerlessness, perceived betrayal, and perceived identity threat were the main cognitive factors in this process. Perceived betrayal exerted a significant effect on passive coping strategies, making the tourists unwilling to solve the problem with the service provider, and thus the customer-to-business relationship was terminated silently. Perceived identity threat positively affected switching intentions. On the other hand, perceived powerlessness discouraged tourists from seeking an immediate solution, while negative emotions led to immediate coping. Tourists' negative emotions were also found to have negatively influenced their evaluation of the overall experience. Therefore, it could be argued that service providers should pay attention to the importance of tourist-to-tourist interaction (TTI) management and take its impact on the overall tourist experience seriously.

Today, medical tourism is considered a valuable industry for many countries' economies that have the potentials to receive patients. However, demand fluctuations have devastating effects on the medical tourism industry and put active companies at risk of bankruptcy. Systematic risks are among the factors involved in demand fluctuations, and companies' readiness to resist them is regarded as an important point in risk management. In cases where the companies are not ready in this regard, potential financial problems and widespread bankruptcy could bring about severe social consequences. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to measure systematic risks in companies actively involved in attracting medical tourists and to estimate the factors affecting such risks. To this end, the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) was used. In this method, the beta coefficient).

which is a statistical measure and gives investors a clue concerning volatility, is calculated to determine the extent to which companies are exposed to systematic risk. However, the asymmetry of information between the internal and external environment of small and medium-sized companies makes such studies more complex. According to the panel-data model results, the size of companies and the amount of their advertising have an adverse effect on systematic risk.

Nowadays, tourist experience and tourist destination choice are the main focal points in the tourism industry and tourism-related subjects addressed at universities. As modern tourists are value-oriented, tourist destinations could only be successful if they create value for their visitors. Moreover, the Quality of tourists' experiences is a key competitive advantage for tourist destinations. This descriptive-survey study, therefore, sought to identify and prioritize different aspects of tourist experience quality from the viewpoint of tourists visiting Shiraz. The statistical population of this study comprised of those foreign tourists who visited Shiraz in April and May of 2019 and stayed at the Grand Hotel of Shiraz. To collect the required data, a questionnaire was administered on 400 visitors who were selected via convenience sampling. The questionnaire's construct validity was measured and approved by experts, and its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's Alpha. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted to identify different aspects of tourist experience quality and validate the identified aspects, respectively, using SPSS and LISREL software. Moreover, to prioritize the aspects, the Shannon Entropy method was implemented in EXCEL software. The study's findings indicated that tourist experience quality consisted of ten aspects. It was also found that perceived interactive experience ranked first in that list from the respondents' standpoint.