Qualitative Analysis of Contexts/Obstacles, Reasons and Consequences of Tourism, Based on Grounded Theory (Case Study: Tourism in Sanandaj)

This research is an attempt to study the contexts/obstacles، reasons and consequences of tourism in Sanandaj by way of a qualitative analysis. To gain this aim، we have used the grounded theory. Grounded theory is generally used to study social phenomena which could not be surveyed through quantitative analysis because of their multi-layered symbolic meaningful aspects. Here the purpose of the research is to interpret the experiences، reasons and practices of the population. Research In this research، the population includes all tourists who traveled to Sanandaj during the first half of the current year. A purposeful/ theoretical sampling has been used to select the respondents. In other words، variational sampling and theoretical saturation were the main criteria in choosing the respondents. Deep individual interview was used for gathering data. In interviews، understanding the reports، narratives، experiences، reasons and intentions of respondents have been our main goals. Discussion and The findings show that tourism industry in this city has got a great potential for development due to some objective/structural and also subjective/cultural conditions. The objective/structural conditions include natural attractiveness and frontier markets; and subjective/cultural conditions comprise historical/ cultural legacy and local flexible culture. But beside these facilitating objective/structural and subjective/cultural conditions، there are also some obstacles which almost prevent tourism industry in this area. In other words، this city at the same time faces some rigid obstacles. These obstacles include structural and non-structural ones. The first kind includes the weakness of communicative facilities، the deficiencies of management and the lack of facilities to attract tourists; and the second include mostly one main factor: the domination of security discourse. The findings also show that among the reasons tourists rely on to come to this city، three are important: emancipative، interactive and instrumental. The emancipative reasons that tourists choose to travel are to get along free time، having family recreation and nature-traveling. The interactive reasons that tourists choose to travel are being acquaintance with ethnic/cultural characteristics of this area and Iran-traveling. And the instrumental reason that tourists choose to travel is purchasing foreign goods. And finally، tourism has different consequences for this area: cultural، political، economic and environmental. Among the cultural consequences of tourism، these are important: developing inter-ethnic interactions، developing communicative competences and enhancing self/other dialogue. The political consequences of tourism include accomplishment of ethnic requests and enhancing national solidarity. The economic ones are creating profession opportunities in tourism industry، elevating the standards of living and developing industrial and communicative infra-structures. And finally among the environmental consequences of tourism، these are important: protecting natural resources، enhancing environmental knowledge and improving the management of wastages. All that we can conclude from this paper is that tourism industry in Sanandaj is at the beginning of its development. Although there are many potential conditions for a developed tourism in this area، there are also rigid obstacles to it. Knowing how to use and manage these potentials and to overcome those obstacles is the key solution to plan and develop tourism in this part of Iran.