Analyzing the Perceptional Pattern of Historical Tourists Regarding Historical Sites Case Study: The Persepolis-Pasargadae Historical Range

Historical sites are signified as important motivation factors in the tourism industry. These destinations have been pictured in historical travelogues and base a data source for gaining knowledge about the history of these sites. But does imaging these destinations follow a pattern among its writers and can these probable patterns be similar to the patterns presented for tourism destinations? For this research the Persepolis-Pasargadae Historical Range was chosen and historical sites in this axis were selected for investigation. The purpose was to assess the perception of historical tourists in this historical range from their written travelogues. Therefore, 65 travelogues were gathered and what they had pictured from these sites was evaluated using the Grounded Theory method.  Results supported the theory that the perception of historical tourists does follow a certain pattern. By comparing the resulted patterns with what is indicated as destination image, a richer concept of destination image emerged for historical sites. This new concept complemented the dimensions of the concept of destination image with in-depth and richer components. Obtained results can be considered as a basis for the development of historical tourism sites.