Characteristics and Role of Reference Source of Printed and Electronic Tourist Directory in Iran

Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors and tourist. Also, tourism is travel for pleasure or business, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. Tourism is one of the important activities in the contemporary era, which plays an important role in the economy of countries. Tourism directory is the tour travel reference for tourists and travelers. This guide contains information about tourist spots, historical, cultural and attractive places for travelers. It also has the listing of associations, organizations and services in travel and tourism. Tourism directory is a tourism information reference with news, events, and tourism festivals. These guides are also important reference sources that provide users with valuable information. Furthermore, there are many directories travel available on the web and print format. But finding the right one that contains the most comprehensive information, details about different destinations, or other travel-related resources can be a tedious task. Searching properly always helps us discover the best travel deals. This study sought to determine the characteristics of printed and electronic tourist guides, Design and organize it in Iran.

This research is applied in terms of the objective and is survey-analytic in terms of the nature and method. The research population consisted of all employees of Department of Tourism and Cultural Heritage Organization in Tehran whose number is 143 individuals. Due to limited population, no sampling was carried out. The instrument for data collection in this study was a researcher-made questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was measured by formal validity method. Confirmatory factor analysis was used for construct validity. The reliability of the questionnaire was calculated by Cronbach's alpha coefficient which was 0.879. The information obtained from the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS software version 19.

Findings showed that the relationship between the use of tourist guides in Iran to receive information and the use of tourist guides with an average of 53.093 and a significant level (0.017) with a T-statistic value of 2.41 less than the error level of 0.05 was obtained. Also, regarding the relationship between Iranian tourist guides in terms of shape and use of tourist guides, the average was 57.33 with a value of T= 318.5 less than the error level of 0.05. In addition, there was a correlation between the use of up-to-date technologies and the use of tourist guides, with an average of 64.97 with a T-statistic of 10.26 less than the error level of 0.05. Also, the existence of a relationship between the use of electronic tourism guides in Iran to receive information and tourist guides, with an average of 57.04 with a value of T of 4.97 less than the error level of 0.05 was determined. Then, the existence of a relationship between electronic tourism guides in Iran in terms of shape and audience attraction, equal to an average of 57.04 with a value of T of 4.97 less than the error level of 0.05 was determined. As a result, all research hypotheses were confirmed. Findings indicate that printed and electronic tourism guides can play an effective role in improving travelers' cognition. These guides can also increase the desire to travel among tourists.

Tourism can be called as a service industry with a value-creating economic function. Tourism is one of the important pillars of the country's development. Therefore, it is important to pay more attention to the factors related to it. The results showed that the use of tourist guides in Iran to receive information and use them properly in encouraging tourists and better understanding of cultural and historical spaces. Advances in technology have led to the use of tools such as social networks, web space, specialized tourism software, which has a positive effect on attracting the audience. Smartphone compatible apps can increase tourism activity. In addition, Sharing tourism information among travelers is one of the most important ways to find out about tourism destinations.it was found that sharing information online can be a factor in enhancing the use of e-guides. Therefore, users' experiences are shared on websites, blogs, and some social networks. Designing tourist guides based on the opinions of tourists and their interests can attract more audiences and encourage them to make more use of enriched guides. It has also provided the conditions that they can use these guides during the trip in an online way. It should be stated that, anyway, the media play a significant role in strengthening the tourism industry, and whether in connection with print or electronic media, using these useful tools in the virtual space can lead to the strengthening of this important sector in the national economy.