The Role of Good Governance in Sustainable Development of Tourism (Case study: Cities of Tabriz, Bonab and Kalibar)

In this research, the approaches of good urban governance and sustainable development of tourism have been used. In relation to the approach of good urban governance, several variables have been presented by valid international organizations, which include the variables of effectiveness, justice, accountability, participation, security and electronic/smart management. Sustainable development of tourism is another approach used in this research; besides, this approach has different dimensions that are classified into three categories: physical-environmental, demographic-social, and economic- institutional. Inside and outside the country, some researches have been conducted in this field, each of which has examined this issue from a specific aspect. So far none of the aspects have analyzed the relationship between good governance and sustainable development of tourism in different cities, and this is exactly the innovation of this research.

Methods and materials:

 The scope of this research is the cities of East Azarbaijan province, which have been selected by considering various criteria such as the city size, geographical distribution of cities at the province, and management and economic conditions, so that the research results can be generalized to all cities. The selected cities are: Tabriz, Bonab and Kalibar. The current research is theoretical-applied research and the comparative investigation of which is based on correlational and analytical methods. Data collection was done based on documentary and survey methods (interviews and questionnaires). Data analysis is a quantitative method that uses descriptive and inferential statistical tests (including multivariate analysis of variance, F statistic, LSD, single-sample T, and Spearman correlation coefficient). The sample size was determined using Cochran's formula with a confidence factor of 95%, which was equal to 384, 382 and 369 people in each of the cities of Tabriz, Bonab and Kalibar respectively. Questioning was done online and the sampling method was based on a simple random method. The scoring of the items in the questionnaires has been done based on the Likert spectrum (five spectrums), so that the very low option is assigned 1 point, and the very high option is assigned 5 points. Option 3 also stands in the middle. The reliability of the research is based on Cronbach's alpha, which is equal to 0.80 and indicates acceptable reliability. The validity of the research also is based on the construct validity.

Surveys indicate that the status of good governance indicators in the cities of Tabriz and Bonab is at an average level (with averages of 2.16 and 2.53, respectively), and in the city of Kalibar is at an appropriate level (with an average of 3.10). Sustainable tourism development indicators were examined in the studied cities and the results showed that the highest sustainability of tourism development has been related to the city of Kalibar (with a coefficient of 3.3); whereas, the lowest stability has been related to the city of Tabriz (with a coefficient of 2.9), which indicates the managers’ ignorance in this field. The results of Spearman's correlation coefficient indicate that there is a significant relationship between level of good urban governance and sustainable development of tourism; In other words, as quality of city governance has improved, the sustainability of their tourism development has increased either. Several factors are influential in aligning the quality of urban governance and the sustainability of tourism development, among which the size of the city, the extent of citizens’ nativity, and the degree of participation in urban management might be mentioned.

The present study argues that with the increase in the quality of urban governance, tourism sustainable development would be more tangible. In order to improve the situation of urban tourism in big cities (Tabriz and to some extent Bonab), the approach of good urban governance in the administration of cities has been suggested. The next step is to increase monitoring mechanisms, which, are currently very poor and this problem has caused an increase in rent-seeking and corruption in the urban management system. Finally, supporting the realization of integrated urban management for the purpose of coordination of the urban tourism development measures and programs, and prevention of the wastage of financial resources is another measure that might help improve the quality of urban governance and more sustainable development of tourism in these cities.