Structural Equation Modeling of Brand Development in Tourism of Natural Places

Brand development in tourism of natural places can play a vital and effective role in attracting tourists. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate a structural equation modeling of brand development in tourism of natural places.

This study was applied in terms of its objective and quantitative in its approach. The research population consisted of employees of organizations and cultural heritage institutions in Tehran city (1,200 individuals). The sample size was determined as 384 individuals using the Krejcie and Morgan table, and they were selected through multi-stage cluster sampling. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire on brand development in tourism of natural places with 23 items, whose content validity was confirmed by 20 experts, and its reliability was calculated using Cronbach's alpha as 0.82. Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling in software such as SPSS and LISREL.

Seven factors were identified: place value, communications and information, tourist facilities and services, physical factor, awareness of the tourism destination brand, attachment to the place, and contextual conditions. All of them had factor loadings exceeding 0.60, the extracted variances were all over 0.70, and the Cronbach's alpha for all of them was higher than 0.80. Furthermore, the model of brand development in tourism of natural places had a good fit, and brand development in tourism of natural places had a positive and significant impact on all seven mentioned factors (p < 0.05).

Based on the results of this study, to attract tourists, conditions can be provided for the realization of place value, communications and information, tourist facilities and services, physical factor, awareness of the tourism destination brand, attachment to the place, and contextual conditions.