Administration System and Sustainable Socio-cultural Development In Tourism Sector of Masooleh

Masooleh is a small city located in northern part of Iran which is a popular tourism destination because of its unique natural features and outstanding cultural and historical characteristics. Tourism is a multifaceted phenomenon which can affect the stakeholders in different ways. Tourism destinations are not static and they may alter over time as tourism development goes from one step to another and Masooleh is no exception. Over the years، tourism development has led to various environmental، economic and socio-cultural impacts in Masooleh. In today’s world، in addition to tourism management and marketing، considering sustainability and tourism impacts in destinations has become a major issue. For the past few decades، sustainability has been applied to tourism research. Sustainable tourism can be defined as the kind of development in an area in such a manner and such a scale that it remains viable over an indefinite period and does not degrade or alter the environment (both human and physical) in which it exists to such a degree that it prohibits successful development and well-being of other activities and programs. Sustainability principles refer to the environmental، economic، and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development، and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee its long-term sustainability. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of tourism managerial system in developing socio-cultural sustainability or unsustainability in Masooleh and it employs a qualitative methodology to achieve this goal. Wehave been used of different qualititive techniques for production data and show contribution of administration system in the process of tourism development، so attended to problems and inefficiency this process. Different research methods have been used in this study such as semi-structured interviews، participatory observation، and secondary data analysis. Over eighty stakeholders were interviewed in Masooleh. Snowball sampling was used to identify the interviewees. Nearly all the interviews were filmed and recorded which proved to help the study magnificently. Discussion and Results The process of tourism management should facilitate cooperation among different sectors at various levels. In addition to studying environmental، economic، and socio-cultural impacts of tourism on host communities، it is important to note the policy making decisions that affect the tourism development in order to investigate the sustainability of a tourism destination. Managerial system in tourism consists of various components such as management decisions، policy making، strategic planning، and implementation that play a crucial role in developing sustainability or unsustainability in tourism destinations. Following the data analysis and interpretation stage، a model is proposed for improving the current managerial system in Masooleh with the focus on socio-cultural sustainability. In making suggestions، every effort has been made to be inclusive of different stakeholders in tourism sustainable development.