Sustainable Tourism Development Planning: Identifying Basic Elements and Assessing Status (Case Study: Bojnord County)

Tourism industry is intricately linked to the economic, cultural, social, and environmental aspects of human life and has gradually become a means of understanding people's lives, understanding the world around them, and enriching the insights and attitudes of people to the concepts of life. Bojnord city has special conditions for enjoying the benefits of tourism, but so far has not been able to take advantage of these opportunities for sustainable tourism development properly. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to explain the sustainable tourism indicators and to prioritize the tourism elements of Bojnord city, in order to identify and explain effective measures in planning sustainable tourism development. So, this research is descriptive-analytical and based on library and field studies. The software used in this research is SPSS and Expert Choice and the results obtained from them on priority actions, specified the criteria of ‘creating and highlighting the attraction factor in tourism elements of the city’, ‘tourism-stimulating factors’ and ‘planning and investing in the tourism infrastructure’, respectively, in terms of their relative weight of 0.36, 0.27, and 0.171. Also, the evaluation of tourism elements of Bojnord shows that in the category of natural elements, Babaaman Park and Esfidan Village with points 0.104 and 0.072, Bash-Qarshas Cultural-Amusement Complex, Mofakham Mansion and Mirror House, Sabze Meydan Caravanserai, Husseinieh Jajarmi and local music with 0.064, 0.060, 0.058, 0.053 and 0.046 points, respectively, are considered as the basic elements of tourism in Bojnord city in the category of cultural elements, which can provide the basis for the realization of sustainable tourism in the desired context. Eventually, by planning and directing funds and development plans, these elements can be considered as an opportunity for the development and prosperity of sustainable tourism in Bojnord.