Making Competitive Iran Touristic Cities

Iran is one of the countries that have various capabilities for tourism development with its various tourist attractions. However, the existence of these attractions alone has not been able to bring success for Iran's tourism and increase the competitiveness of Iran's tourism industry compared to other tourist destinations. Since the development of a country's tourism competitiveness depends on the competitiveness of its domestic destinations, it is necessary to primarily develop the competitiveness of Iran's domestic tourism destinations. In this direction, there are various challenges that Iran cities are facing and they must be identified. The purpose of this study is to identify challenges facing Iran cities in the field of tourism competitiveness and provide integrated solutions to strengthen their competitiveness. First, the initial conceptual model of competitiveness of Iran touristic cities was developed by reviewing the research literature. Then, using a questionnaire approved by experts, the conceptual model of the research was tested with the opinions of experienced tour guides and a path analysis method based on PLS. Research findings including demographic data, descriptive statistics of variables and inferential findings were analyzed. Solutions and suggestions for each of factors that have challenged the competitiveness of Iran touristic cities were presented.