نشریه مطالعات اجتماعی گردشگری
سال یازدهم شماره 4 (زمستان 1402)

While many scholars believe that tourists take the trouble to visit authentic destinations away from their place of residence, few studies have so far been conducted in this regard. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the role of perceived authenticity on tourists' satisfaction and revisiting intention. To this end, perceived authenticity was divided into objective, structural, and existential categories based on the analysis of the related literature review. Moreover, the study was conducted in the Kourd House Ethnology Museum of Sanandaj. On the other hand, to collect the required data, a valid questionnaire was administered to 224 tourists who visited the place. Finally, the collected data were analyzed through SPSS20 software using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicated that objective, structural, and existential authenticity positively influenced tourists’ satisfaction. However, it was merely the objective and existential authenticity that exerted a positive effect on the tourists’ intention to revisit the place. Moreover, tourists’ satisfaction was also found to have a positive influence on their revisiting intention.

The current study set out to identify the influential factors involved in implementing public tourism policies in Gilan province, Iran. To this end, this developmental qualitative research applies an inductive approach and follows the interpretive-constructivist philosophy. The study’s population consisted of experts in the field of tourism, public policy, Gilan studies, and geography, out of whom some twenty experts were selected and interviewed using purposive snowball sampling. According to the findings of the study, technological, cultural, social, economic, and political-administrative factors were found to have contributed to the implementation of the public tourism policy in Gilan province. In this regard, the political-administrative factor was found to comprise bureaucracy reduction, education, and human resources development and improvement. Moreover, it was revealed that the social factors included strengthening social responsibility, increasing public and non-governmental organizations' participation, proper communication of the executive department with residents, and enjoying social capital. On the other hand, the results showed that the cultural factor consisted of utilizing cultural symbols, developing localized policies, and emphasizing the cultural structure of each region and that the technological factor included the emphasis on media advertisement and strengthening technological infrastructure. Finally, the economic factor was found to comprise participatory governance, proper financial planning, and proper budgeting. The main achievement of this research is its focus on the implementation aspect of policy-making and the recognition of various cultural, technological, social, economic, and political-administrative factors in the successful implementation of tourism policies, suggesting that in addition to economic factors, some other factors also contribute to the effective policy implementation, a fact which has been neglected in many similar studies.

Playing a significant role in reducing rural poverty, fostering sustainable agricultural and rural development, creating income-generating opportunities for local residents, promoting the culture of natural resource protection, and optimal use of cultural and natural attractions, agricultural tourism provides the basis for interaction between village residents and visiting tourists. In this regard, this study sought to examine the driving forces involved in developing agricultural tourism in Dresjin village from the local stakeholders’ perspective, focusing on the grape festival. The current research is applied in terms of type and descriptive-analytical in terms of nature. The sample size of the study comprised seventy-eight household members who were interviewed along the sidewalks leading to the festival site of Dresjin village. The required data were also collected through library and field studies. The data were then analyzed via the MICMAC approach using the worst-best preference technique. The findings of the study indicated that the positive and pleasant feeling produced by the space and the restoration and maintenance of monuments were the most significantly preferred factors involved in the social production of the space, providing the visitors of Dresjin village with a pleasant feeling and bringing about positive results for the village. Therefore, it appears that tourism development programs must be developed for the village, including clearly set missions and duties of relevant organizations. Such well-developed programs could help avoid parallel working and unnecessary duplications, and also create a sense of responsibility in the actors involved through the tasks assigned to them.

This study sought to investigate the influence of newly-emerged leadership styles, that is, servant leadership, authentic leadership, and patriarchal leadership on the psychological capital and occupational behavior of hotel staff in the Iranian cities of Sareyn and Ardabil. To this end, the population of the study comprised 312 hotel staff, out of whom 255 people were selected via convenient sampling. The required data were collected through a standard questionnaire which was administered online. The collected data were then analyzed through SPSS software and LISREL software using the structural equation method. The findings proved that all three leadership styles investigated in this study influenced the hotel staff’s psychological capital and occupational behavior. Furthermore, the staff’s occupational participation was found to be effective in the provision of extra-role services to the customers. It can thus be argued that the intended novel styles of leadership increase individuals’ psychological capital and occupational participation. Therefore, organizations, especially those involved in tourism and accommodation, should try their best to adopt such leadership styles.

Tourism regions are among the most important resources for the development of the tourism industry. The status of Tehran province’s tourism regions shows that while twenty-nine tourism regions have been designated in the province, none of them are operationalized. Therefore, considering the significance of investment in such regions, this study sought to identify the factors involved in promoting and/or hindering investments in tourism regions of the province (those located in Shemiranat city). To this end, the required data for this applied survey study were collected via a questionnaire. According to the results of the study, the factors mentioned above could be divided into four categories: “policy and regulations”, “preparatory studies”, “financial support”, and “knowledge promotion and capacity building”. In this regard, the highest mean among the inhibiting factors belonged to the disharmony between executive bodies, lack of regulations regarding the time required for the issuance of relevant permits by the competent authorities and organizations, the risk of inflation, and lack of well-trained managers and employees. As for the success factors, the highest mean was related to factors such as submitting the management of tourism regions to qualified people, the necessity of conducting comprehensive risk studies before deciding to hand over the project, creating support and development funds to provide sustainable resources for granting loans and facilities and fostering cooperation between the local community and investors.

This study set out to investigate the trend of studies conducted on tourist experience using bibliometric analysis. To this end, the study analyzed 2683 articles published in the Web of Science database from 1980 to 2020 using the VOS Viewer software to visualize and analyze the results. In this regard, two analysis levels were considered. At the first level, the publication trend and the impact factor of authors, journals, and articles were examined. At the second level, the structure of the co-occurrence network of keywords and the co-authorship network of authors, institutions, and countries were analyzed. The findings of the study indicated a significantly growing trend of studies (most of which were published in 2019) conducted on tourism experience in recent years, which is expected to continue to grow in the future. On the other hand, hospitality and leisure, management, and environmental studies were found as the highly researched areas, with most articles being published on tourism experience. Moreover, social media, trust, user opinions, and competitiveness are among the emerging research areas in the relevant literature. In this regard, health tourism, culinary tourism, social experience, shared value creation, authenticity, cultural experience, destination experience, backpackers, information technology, cultural differences, cultural heritage, students’ experiences, sustainable management, and transportation are among the main topics addressed in the literature. On the other hand, the analysis of the authors' co-authorship network revealed that thirty-five research groups are currently working in this field worldwide, with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University exerting the highest influence on the international collaboration network.

Created on a social network basis, Instagram pages effectively contribute to shaping our mental perception regarding various topics. On the other hand, those Instagram pages dedicated to travel have highly been welcomed by viewers in recent years. Actually, the representations made by the relevant influences concerning the travel process, travel destination, and travel meaning construct some explicit and implicit meanings. Therefore, this study sought to identify the semantic system governing the popular Instagram pages of travel influencers. The conceptual framework of the study is based on John Fisk's semiotic approach and his social reality codes, including social reality, representational reality, and ideological reality. Social reality codes address physical characteristics such as speech, environment, and clothing. Moreover, representational reality codes deal with the sender's creative power, including framing, colors, companionship and substitution, and characterization. Finally, ideological reality codes examine the concept that gives coherence to such categories. The findings of the study indicated that naturalism, intimacy, liberation in social relations and individual lifestyle, availability and ease of travel, charm-seeking, desire for freedom, travel as a lifestyle, and responsible travel are the pivotal values represented by travel influencers at the level of ideological codes, representing such a special type of tourism that seeks changes in daily routines, acquisition of new experiences, the quest for authenticity, and returning to the true self. This travel style represents a conscious or non-conscious effort against the homogenization of the modern world and a kind of resistance against daily routines, rationalization, and social order.

While leisure limitations have long been the subject of research, there has recently been a growing trend in academic studies that examine such limitations in terms of tourism and disability. However, as those studies are merely limited to the identification and elaboration of the barriers and limitations., the current study sought to investigate the influence of such limitations on the target population. Therefore, based on the study conducted by Lee et al. (2012), the current study set out to investigate the effect of perceived travel limitations on the tourism tendency of physically disabled individuals living in Tehran, Iran, using Seligman's Helplessness Theory. The required data for this applied, descriptive-analytical correlational study was collected through a survey using a researcher-developed questionnaire. The statistical population of the study comprised all physically disabled people, those suffering from spinal cord injury, and war-disabled individuals living in Tehran, out of whom 383 people were selected as the sample size using the convenience sampling method. The findings of the study indicated that tourism limitations perceived by the disabled residents of Tehran did not significantly affect their tourism tendencies. On the other hand, the perceived tourism limitations exerted a positive influence on their learned helplessness. Finally, the learned helplessness of people with disabilities negatively affected their intention to travel. The results of the present study can be used by relevant institutions such as Tehran's municipality, those responsible for urban management, and institutions in charge of the affairs of disabled people.

Tourism policies widely affect the lives of local residents. On the other hand, the effectiveness of such policies depends on the local community’s support and participation. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the influence of the Local Community’s Place Image and their perception of tourism impacts on their support for tourism policies in Semnan. To this end, some 340 questionnaires were distributed among local residents, out of which 322 questionnaires were completed by the respondents. The collected data were then analyzed by PLS software using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results indicated that the residents’ place image had a direct significant effect on their perception of tourism impacts and consequently on their support for tourism development policies. Moreover, the findings highlighted the necessity of evaluating tourism impacts based on the perceptions of residents, because the more favorable they consider the tourism impacts, the more support they give to tourism development policies. Finally, this study suggests some policy recommendations on how to manage the local community’s place image, their perceptions of tourism impacts, and their support for tourism policy-making.