Identifying and prioritizing the indicators of the creative tourism city in Babolsar

One of the ways to achieve creative cities is to take advantage of the potential of cities in various fields, especially tourism. Creating creative tourism cities, in addition to paving the way for attracting more tourists and promoting the city as an active tourism destination, can increase the economic empowerment of residents and create jobs related to tourism, and also improve the quality of residents. Therefore, urban planning is very important in turning them into creative tourism cities. Babolsar city has the potential to become a creative city with an emphasis on the tourism approach due to its location and geography and high tourism potentials in various fields, but it is still far from the creative city of tourism. Utilizing these capabilities and opportunities requires identifying and extracting indicators that can be effective in the planning process and turning this city into a creative tourism city. Therefore, in the present study, by examining the criteria and indicators of the creative tourism city, an attempt was made to provide a suitable ground for this city to become a creative tourism city.

This is an applied research and its method is descriptive-analytical. The required data were collected through library and field studies and was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The statistical population of the study consists of 59966 people living in Babolsar. The sample size was 383 based on Cochran's formula and the statistical sample selection method was random. In the analysis of questionnaire data, first, with the help of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in SPSS and AMOS software environment, the most important effective indicators in achieving the model of creative tourism city were extracted.

Based on the findings of Kolomogorov-Smirnov test, it was determined that the dimensions of the creative tourism city both have an abnormal distribution and therefore, Pearson correlation coefficient test was used to measure the relationship between variables and factor analysis in SPSS and AMOS software was exerted to measure factor loadings. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient in this study showed that there is a significant relationship between physical, social, economic and tourism potentials of Babolsar. The calculated correlation coefficient between social, physical and economic components with tourism potentials of Babolsar is equal to 0/676, 0/428, 0/370, respectively. To determine the relationship and prediction between the research variables, regression analysis between social, physical and economic variables as an independent variable (predictor) and the creative tourism city of Babolsar as a dependent variable (criterion) was used by the simultaneous method. The results of multiple correlation coefficient show that there is a direct and significant relationship between social, physical and economic variables. Also, the coefficient of determination R2 shows that 57/5% of the variance of urban tourism is related to social, physical and economic variables and 42/5% of the variance is related to factors outside the model. The results of multivariate regression also indicate that social, physical, and economic variables are eligible to predict the creative tourism city. Also, the results of regression line slope (B) for all predictor components show that there is a direct relationship between predictor components. The beta coefficient (B) is also used as a measure of the relative importance of the variables. Therefore, comparing the social variable (0/089), economic variable (0/375) and physical variable (0/105), we can understand the importance of the economic variable dimension compared to the other ones. Accordingly, these components, based on importance, include economic, social and physical variables, respectively. Based on the regression relationship, achieving a creative tourism city will depend on changes in social, economic and physical variables. Considering the above relationship, for each unit of economic variable 0/789, social variable 0/681 and physical variable 0/498 will be added to achieve creative tourism city in Babolsar. The results of factor analysis showed that all factors such as business processes and tourism economy, creative and innovative thinking, cultural and spiritual capital, sustainable infrastructure, attractiveness and diversity, tradition and identity, quality of tourism, knowledge, education, deepening the tourist relationship with the host community, multiplicity and diversity of tourism products, and strengthening the participation of residents, respectively, have most factor loadings to achieve a creative tourism city. Based on the appropriate fit of the research conceptual model, the consistency of the conceptual model with the collected data is confirmed.

In the present study, the local criteria of the creative tourism city in Babolsar were extracted and explained. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient in this study showed that there is a significant relationship between physical, social, economic and tourism potentials of Babolsar city equal to 0/676, 0/428, 0/370, respectively. The results of factor analysis also showed the all factors such as business processes and tourism economy, creative and innovative thinking, cultural and spiritual capital, sustainable infrastructure, attractiveness and diversity, tradition and identity, quality of tourism, knowledge, education, deepening the tourist relationship with the host community, multiplicity and diversity of tourism products, and strengthening the participation of residents, respectively, have most factor loadings to achieve a creative tourism city. As a result, Babolsar city has a high potential to become a creative tourism city. In fact, according to the cultural, social, economic, environmental and physical potentials and strategic location of Babolsar, this city can take effective steps to become a creative tourism city.