Identifying Mental Patterns of E-Tourism Establishment: Application of Q Methodology the Case Study of Coastal Cities of Mazandaran

Today, the tourism industry is not only a leisure activity, but also one of the most important business sectors in the global economy. Electronic tourism and its applications have expanded in recent years, and especially with the spread of the coronavirus, it has been more and more noticed. E-tourism is the digitization of all processes in the tourism industry, which enables organizations to improve their efficiency, so it is necessary to pay special attention to the application and impact of e-tourism. This research was conducted to identify the mental patterns of e-tourism establishment in the coastal cities of Mazandaran province. The current research is of mixed-exploratory type, which was carried out using Q methodology. This research has been done with the participation of ten professors who are familiar with the subject of research and also tourism experts. The discourse space of the current research was collected from various sources and after evaluating and summarizing the discourse space, 32 expressions were selected as samples. In the following, after collecting the information obtained from Q sorting, this information was analyzed with the Q factor analysis method. Distribution analysis showed that three distinct mental patterns could be identified among the research participants, which explained about 68% of the total variance. These three mental models were named according to organization strategy, value creation for tourists and development of the tourism service market. Thus, the results of the research showed that: moving towards the sustainable development of the tourism industry with the establishment of e-tourism to increase the share of tourism in the coastal cities of Mazandaran province requires the formulation of scientific strategies and the creation and recognition of the common values of the company and customers, which creates value, and also through The development of tourism services market ultimately leads to more satisfaction among tourists.