A Study of the Effect of Political Ideology on Tourism Industry (Case Study: Iran)

Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity and is the world’s fastest growing industry. Today, tourism is a major source of income for many countries, and affects the economy of both the source and host countries, in some cases being of vital importance. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012 and International tourism receipts grew to US$1.07 trillion in 2013. In this industry, Marine and coastal tourism has been the fastest growing in the world. This large market is not equal among world countries. Development of tourism in the countries depends to different factors that the most important is political ideology. The political-economical atmosphere and even social and cultural aspects a country impress from state’s political ideology. The tourism as a social-economical phenomenon a lot of is affected from the political ideology. Stagnancy or strenuous this industry a lot of depends on to it. Iran is one of the oldest world civilization and countries. Iran is vast country and the landscapes of Iran are diverse. Iran has diverse climates and more than 2700 kilometers beach. So, this country has a lot of touristic attractions. But, Iran does not have fit rank in attracting international tourist and receipts in region and world. The problem of research is that what has affected Iran’s political ideology on its tourism industry. Why Iran has not any notable contribution from the world market of tourism, although it has a lot of environments and historical-cultural attractions.