نشریه برنامه ریزی و توسعه گردشگری
پیاپی 45 (تابستان 1402)

the objective of this study is to identify, identify, and prioritize the most important factors and components for planning and developing Islamic destinations by examining and reviewing research conducted in this area using a qualitative meta-analysis approach. A secondary objective of this study is also to provide a conceptual model for the process of Islamic destination planning and development.

Design/methodology/approach:

 This study is a documentary research, and by its methodological approach, it belongs to the category of qualitative research. The statistical population included all available articles published in Persian and English journals until the end of 2022 and 1401 AH and relevant scientific databases were used for sampling.

The most important factors that affect the planning and development of Islamic destinations and their prioritization include the four factors of services, access, environment and communication and 16 components related to these factors.

it is possible to generalize the proposed process for planning and development of Islamic destinations, including the formation of an inclusive planning task force, the collection of evidence and recognition of the existing situation, the determination of the direction of movement for the destination, the identification of the necessary actions and their implementation, and finally the measurement of the progress of the work and further achievement of the planning goal.

Originality/value: 

Compared to previous studies, applying a meta-analytical approach while forming new ideas for optimal planning can help managers, researchers, etc. to have a proper vision of this growing market as a practical guide.

The present research aims to clarify the concept of tourism place branding by examining its evolution in previous studies and identifying its effective dimensions and components. The general objective of this study is to provide a theoretical background for tourism place branding in the form of a conceptual model by analyzing the theoretical literature in this field.

Design/methodology/approach: 

This research employs a meta-analysis method and a structural-interpretive approach. Despite the extensive theoretical literature, there is no consensus on the effective components of tourism place branding. Therefore, this research has chosen the period of 1999-2021 to examine the evolution of this issue.

During this period, a rapid movement of the concept of tourism branding has taken place from a one-dimensional, visually, and tangibly-based approach towards a multidimensional, interdisciplinary, interactive, and participatory concept. In this process, the nature of place branding has changed from a marketing tool to an approach for dealing with various dimensions of place management. In the second part of the research, 21 effective components of tourism branding were identified using an expert-oriented questionnaire, and eight important components were categorized according to experts' opinions.

The identified factors include: 1- The position of the city in the international arena, 2- People's perceptions about the body and location of the city, 3- Perceived economic and social opportunities, 4- Tourist attractions and facilities, 5- Brand infrastructure and foundation, 6- Government intervention and support, 7- Tourism brand introduction and advertising, and 8- Creation of attractive and diverse situations and events for tourists.

Originality/value: 

This research fills the gap in previous studies and by presenting a picture of tourism branding, it highlights the necessity of creating a powerful tourism brand as a competitive advantage in today's world. Therefore, branding can be identified as a sustainable competitive advantage and transformed into a desirable competitive identity.

Considering the lack of theoretical studies in the field of tourism marketing professional competence, the present study has discussed a future-oriented reflection on tourism marketing professional competence with a view to sustainable development.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The required data were collected from two parts of the research literature to identify the indicators of professional qualification (marketing) of tourism, as well as the opinions of nine senior managers of government organizations and reputable tourism companies to identify the local structure of the indicators. In order to identify the indicators, the inductive content analysis tool was used, and to present the native model, the theme analysis tool was used in the Max QDA software.

The findings of the study showed that the professional competence of tourism industry activists can be evaluated based on 88 skills, knowledge, personality, attitudinal, motivational, and general indicators. Moreover, the results showed that the country's tourism marketing professional qualification system included six dimensions of skills, knowledge and information, behavioral indicators, general competencies, management capabilities, and auxiliary enhancing factors.

The tourism industry and tourism marketing will not be able to influence the behavior and decisions of customers without the presence of people who can show behavioral flexibility and have a high level of self-confidence and creativity. In addition, the ability of leadership refers to the existence of charismatic abilities in a person, and the existence of such abilities and characteristics means the ability to deeply influence others.

Originality/value:

The issue of professional competence in the tourism industry is considered extremely vital. Despite this importance, the studies show that there is not much theoretical attention to the issue of tourism marketing professional competence and the effective indicators of measuring such competence in the country, and the present study seeks to solve this gap among domestic studies.

This study investigates the spatial network of the tourism economy in urban areas of Iran and analyzes the tourism network in Kerman province.

Design/methodology/approach: 

In the analysis of tourism in different regions of Iran, the gravity model of the tourism economy is employed using econometric panel data models. In the spatial network of the tourism economy in Kerman province, network indices are calculated using Ucinet software. The statistical population of this research includes the provinces of Iran and the counties of Kerman province. The statistical samples in the national and Kerman province sections are from 2011 to 2018 and 2018 to 2021, respectively.

The findings of the study reveal that the greater the distance between two tourist destinations, the stronger the economic connection in tourism becomes. This is because cities compete with each other economically to sustain their growth. In other words, the longer the distance, the more investment and higher economic connectivity a city requires to independently meet the needs of its residents and tourists. The cities of Kerman, Sirjan, Rafsanjan, Jiroft, and Bam, as core nodes, have a higher level of influential prestige and a greater impact on indicators compared to dependent nodes. They can act as core nodes and contribute to the progress and increased collaboration with neighboring cities.

Given that variables such as ecotourism, tourist attractions, and visitor numbers are central to the network, provincial managers are advised to prioritize the development of ecotourism in all areas of Kerman province. Therefore, relevant tourism organizations should create opportunities for promoting and introducing the tourist attractions of the province nationally and internationally, considering the significant impact of tourist attractions.

Originality/value: 

One of the originalities of this study is the estimation of the gravity model of tourism for urban areas in Iran and the utilization of network analysis in the spatial network of the tourism economy in Kerman province.

E-business has branched off the important work models of the twenty-first century that, in addition to building strong relationships with current customers, seek to attract more and more customers in today's dynamic and complex market environment. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual framework for e-commerce businesses in the field of tourism. The indicators of this study are combined using the meta-synthesis method.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The meta-synthesis method was used to collect the required data. The study population was electronic databases. The research sample population in the present research included scientific sources from 2000 to 2020. The value of the Kappa index was equal to 0.712 and the articles extracted and analyzed through the hyper-combined method had a considerable and good level of reliability. The seven-step method of Sandlowski and Barroso was used to perform the meta-synthesis method.

In this study, six criteria (customer relationship, hardware network, software network, business efficiency, content (employee behavior), and business structure) have been identified, among which 29 sub-criteria were introduced as well.

Real-world managers and users have been advised to develop e-commerce businesses in the field of tourism; besides focusing on six main categories including customer relationship, hardware network, software network, business performance, employee behavior, business model, and variables, they should pay attention to related sub-sections.

Originality/value:

 The extracted new components of tourism e-commerce businesses in the northern region of the country and the categorization of codes for the final analysis and interpretation in the meta-combination method and presenting a conceptual model are innovations of this research.

Due to the curiosity of new tourists to understand the new concepts and positive benefits and their impact on the tourists' life quality, the researcher decided to study the role of sports tourism in spirituality.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The research tool was Shafi'a and Sabbaghpour Azarian’s (2016) modified questionnaire through which information was received online from virtual networks. The statistical population of the study was all active and inactive sports tourists and the statistical sample included 365 people. The questionnaire had acceptable face and content validity and acceptable reliability (0.89). Statistical analysis of the data of this research was done at two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistical methods were used in classifying and summarizing data and compiling graphs and tables, and for inferential analysis of data, structural equation modeling was performed using AMOS and SPSS software.

The results show that sports tourism has a significant effect on all dimensions of spirituality, including reaching meaning (0.85), achieving excellence (0.1), and mutual understanding (1.05). This study intends to reduce the purely "economic" view of tourism and pay more attention to other dimensions such as spirituality, which is a human experience for communication that is born of reason and thinking.

In this regard, suggestions for the development of sports tourism concerning it were presented to the dimensions of spirituality.

Originality/value: 

The article is the result of a post-doctoral research work in which suggestions were presented for the development of sports tourism with regard to the dimensions of spirituality.

Since tourism is considered an important industry of the economy, any effective efforts to increase tourists’ satisfaction and create positive behavioral intentions will contribute significantly to the economic prosperity of this industry. The visitors’ behavioral intentions to tourism destinations, as a predictor of visitors’ future behavior, is considered an important variable in tourism literature. Therefore, investigating the factors affecting it can help improve the tourism industry and realize its goals. This research aims to investigate the relationship between experience quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions of tourists.

Design/methodology/approach: 

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of data collection, which was accomplished through the structural equation modeling method based on partial least squares with the help of Smart-PLS 3 software. Data was gathered from 291 visitors in one of Tehran’s museums using a valid questionnaire.

The findings of this study indicate that there is a significant relationship between tourists’ experience quality and their satisfaction with moderate intensity. Moreover, a significant low-intensity relationship can be observed between the perceived value of tourists and their satisfaction. Finally, there is a strong relationship between tourist satisfaction and behavioral intentions.

Based on research findings, the attention of tourism industry practitioners and museum managers to creating diverse experiences in accordance with visitors’ expectations can lead to their behavioral intentions towards revisiting or recommending others to visit tourist destinations. Satisfaction, on the one hand, is a function of tourists’ experience and their perceived value of tourism service, and on the other hand, can affect their behavioral intentions. Therefore, the objective of increasing tourist satisfaction can be achieved by increasing experience quality and improving perceived value, which in turn will lead to positive behavioral intentions of visitors to tourist destinations.

Originality/value: 

The main originality of this study is the investigation of the relationship between experience quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions of museum visitors.

Historical and cultural attractions are a kind of national wealth, which becomes a type of tourist facility after appropriate use and can be exploited by qualified people. These valuable resources, like other huge resources of Iran, need targeted and planned management. The goals of investors and users of different types of tourism infrastructures are completely decisive in their management process, and in the case of historical and cultural works and buildings, it directly affects the process of revitalization, restoration, maintenance, and introduction of local subcultures. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the full range of goals and approaches that can be adopted.

Design/methodology/approach:

 To fulfill the goal of the study, 15 industry experts were identified as participants. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using Max QDA Analytics 2018 software, based on the logic of the thematic analysis method.

The results of the research showed that the goals of the applicants for exploitation (investment) of tourism facilities (historical and cultural buildings) are categorized into three main themes (categories), including economic goals, cultural goals, and sustainability goals. Each of these goals can be achieved through various approaches that are mentioned in the research.

The findings of the study revealed that the goals of the applicants for exploitation (investment) of tourism facilities (historical and cultural buildings) are categorized into three main themes (categories), including economic, cultural, and sustainability goals, each of which can be achieved through various approaches mentioned in the study.

Originality/value: 

In this research, in the new method that was presented to evaluate the operator's goals, if the operator's performance has a percentage of relative agreement with the outlined goals, to extend the contract with the successful operator, at the discretion of the organization and the rehabilitation fund, facilities should be considered as the incentive factors. Drawing and placing goals in the contract period by the organization or fund can be done in such a way that easier goals (economic and cultural) are considered at the beginning and more complex goals (sustainability goals) are considered at the end of the period; because more complex goals usually have a combination of elementary goals in their hearts.