Identifying and Explaining the Cultural Tourism Scenarios in the Post-Corona Era (A Case Study of Geographical Area in Ardabil Province)

Cultural tourism is one of the types of tourism that is affected by the serious damage of the Corona epidemic. Most countries in the post-Corona era are trying to promote cultural tourism, which has required them to adopt new approaches and methods. The main purpose of this study is to identify and explain the scenarios of cultural tourism in the post-Corona era, which is focused on Ardabil province. The research method is a mix of two methods, ‘focus group’ and ‘scenario planning’, using a sequential exploratory approach. The main tool used in the qualitative phase is a semi-structured interview in the form of an online focus group and the quantitative phase is a questionnaire. The participants of the present study were 8 experts and academic and executive experts of the country in the field of cultural tourism who participated in the focus group. According to the research findings, in the qualitative phase, 13 main codes were extracted in the form of three basic concepts, which were categorized using the three-pronged model. According to the discussion and the results, 4 scenarios were created, each of which can help to create the necessary flexibility in the field of cultural tourism and make this type of tourism with synergy and innovation in Ardabil province.