Statistical analysis of domestic tourism in Iran, flows and destinations

Tourism is one of the top industries and income-generating and employment-generating activities in the world and accurate market identification is the key to its development. Although tourism is an international activity, many individuals and organizations in the local or national market are employed in this sector, and as a result, "domestic tourism" has a huge place in the national economic cycle.

Aims and Objective:

In this study, statistical analysis of domestic tourism in Iran and its flows and destinations is studied.

The information of the national tourist survey plan for different years provided by the Statistics Center of Iran, changes in the number of trips and its characteristics collected. To describe the current situation and observe the trend of changes, descriptive statistics, growth rate and trend line charts were used and to predict the number of domestic trips and expenditures and changes in the main destinations of travel, different time series models were used.

The results show that the general trend of domestic tourism in Iran has a positive growth with a gentle slope. Tourism costs are rising steeply and the choice of major travel destinations has changed significantly in recent years. In general, the predominant pattern of domestic tourism is traveling with family, staying at the home of friends and relatives, using a personal vehicle, and being motivated to visit friends and relatives. The highest costs were in the transportation and food sectors, which will not change in the near future. Although the most important tourist destinations have been reported in Khorasan Razavi, Mazandaran, Gilan, Tehran and Fars provinces, certain changes have been observed in the choice of destinations by tourists, which can be considered as new destinations such as: Sistan and Baluchestan, Ilam, Bushehr, Yazd and Kerman provinces.