Feasibility of Tourism Cluster Development Case Study: Anzali City, Iran

Cluster development strategy is one of the prosperous methods of organizing Small & Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs). This method has been playing a significant part in regional development of various countries for more than three decades. This research first surveyed the conceptual framework of tourism clusters and then analyzed Anzali as a tourism cluster based on the four specifications of business clusters (geographical concentration, sectorial concentration, co-operational relations, and common opportunities and threats). ‘Location Quotient Technique’ and ‘Cooperation Matrix’ were respectively used for analysis of ‘geographical and sectorial centralization’ and questionnaire forms were employed for evaluation of ‘co-operational relations between business unites’ and ‘common opportunities and threats’ assessments. Findings reveal: tourism economic sector of Anzali stands in the ‘basic’ level and holds Location Quotient of 1.02; tourism businesses have common opportunities and threats, but inter-enterprise cooperation relations are weak. Finally, strategic policies are proposed based on current position and future opportunities of Anzali tourism cluster.