seyed sadrodin shariati; akbar pour faraj; mohammad heydari
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 1-23
Abstract
Visiting cultural and historical destinations is one of the largest, most pervasive, and fastest growing trends in tourism industry. It is well known that both tangible and intangible legacies of Islamic civilization have created a great potential to develop religious heritage tourism in religious destinations ...
Read More
Visiting cultural and historical destinations is one of the largest, most pervasive, and fastest growing trends in tourism industry. It is well known that both tangible and intangible legacies of Islamic civilization have created a great potential to develop religious heritage tourism in religious destinations of Iran. The holy city of Qom, which embodies a large range of Islamic heritage, is one of such destinations able to foster tourism. This study reviews the role of Islamic civilization in tourism development and identifies factors affecting it in Qom. The research is of survey type and questionnaires were distributed among the tourism experts of Qom. Results approved all the predefined indexes. Factors of Islamic civilization that affect tourism development in Qom, are the following respectively: pilgrimage places, spiritual ambiance, Islamic traditions, being historical , Islamic museums, sacred natural sites, Islamic monuments, Islamic culinary traditions, Islamic arts and crafts, Islamic performing arts, Islamic music, Islamic medicine, Islamic literature and poets, and Islamic traditional sports. Since, both tangible and intangible legacies of Islamic civilization were proved to have influence on the development of religious tourism destination of Qom, the author suggested that Islamic intangible heritage should be promoted and developed alongside other Islamic tangible masterpieces.
nader mazlumi; seyed hasan jalali
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 25-48
Abstract
Tourism policy making, as an essential pillar in sustainable tourism development, is a fundamental priority for researchers to explore. In this vein, the current research probes into Iran's tourism policies, namely Tourism Development Vision and comprehensive national and regional plans, and highlights ...
Read More
Tourism policy making, as an essential pillar in sustainable tourism development, is a fundamental priority for researchers to explore. In this vein, the current research probes into Iran's tourism policies, namely Tourism Development Vision and comprehensive national and regional plans, and highlights the need for identifying factors affecting the success or failure of these plans. The main questions dealt with in this study are about what and how social networks’ websites influence the success of tourism policies in the country. A total of 357 foreign tourists visiting Isfahan were chosen randomly. Subsequently, correlation test was performed on the data collected through structured questionnaires. Findings indicate that social networks’ websites influence trust and risk in tourism; and interaction of these two factors with travel intention ultimately affects the success or failure of Iran's tourism policymaking.
mohammadreza farzin; mohammad sharifi tehrani
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 49-72
Abstract
This study pertains to the investigation of dual pricing strategy for museums entrance fees, centering on the impact of two variables of “visitors’ attitude towards museums” and “traveled distance from the tourists’ origin to destination” on visitors’ maximum ...
Read More
This study pertains to the investigation of dual pricing strategy for museums entrance fees, centering on the impact of two variables of “visitors’ attitude towards museums” and “traveled distance from the tourists’ origin to destination” on visitors’ maximum Willingness to Pay (WTP). Applying contingent valuation method, this research aims to estimate a fair and optimal admission fee to offer to each segment of domestic and foreign visitors to the National Museum of Iran. Results manifest that domestic visitors’ WTP is negatively influenced by distance, while no significant relationship is found between these variables for foreign visitors. On the other hand, the attitude variable is significantly associated with both groups’ WTP with positive sign. According to the main findings, the mean WTP is RLS 9450 and US$ 6.31 for domestic and foreign visitors respectively, implying that the current entry fee of RLS 10000 is substantially less than what most foreign respondents stated as their maximum willingness to pay. This prompts considering a reasonable increase in the current entry fee and the practice of adopting dual pricing, whereby foreign visitors are asked to pay higher prices than domestic ones.
habib ebrahim pour; mohammad hasan zadeh; vali nemati
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 73-92
Abstract
Organizational citizenship behavior is a type of voluntary behavior that is displayed out of the person’s own willingness, without any extrinsic motivation. This behavior is beyond the predefined duties of the employee and is done for helping out the organization or the customer, and entails no ...
Read More
Organizational citizenship behavior is a type of voluntary behavior that is displayed out of the person’s own willingness, without any extrinsic motivation. This behavior is beyond the predefined duties of the employee and is done for helping out the organization or the customer, and entails no compensation. Existence of people with such behavior in organizations, not only helps accomplishing the organizational goals, but also acts a source of competitive advantage for institutions. The fruit of such behavior in individual level is loyalty of employees to organization and the job. This loyalty in tourism and hoteliering arenas translates into multiple returning of tourists and recommendation of destinations to others. Respecting the importance of organizational citizenship behavior in prosperity of hotels and formation of tourist loyalty, the current research engages in the study of its influence on loyalty of tourists accommodating in 2 and 3 stared hotels of Sarein. The method is descriptive-survey type. Statistical population encompasses the customers, managers and employees of different sections of hotels. Findings of the research revealed that indexes of citizenship behavior influence the tourist’s loyalty by different weights. In the end, some suggestions are provided for the hotel managers.
fereshte mansuri moayed; samira soleymani
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 93-110
Abstract
Purpose of this study is to compare the destination image among tourists who take benefit of different marketing tools for their information gathering. Iran was chosen as the study destination and the potential foreign tourists who were willing to visit Iran and were somehow in search of information ...
Read More
Purpose of this study is to compare the destination image among tourists who take benefit of different marketing tools for their information gathering. Iran was chosen as the study destination and the potential foreign tourists who were willing to visit Iran and were somehow in search of information for choosing their travel destination, comprised the statistical population. The method employed for gathering data is survey. Findings reveal that internet, as the tourists’ most important tool for information collection, significantly affects the affective image of tourists, rendering a completely different affective image of destination among users and non-users of internet. Among various marketing tools, word of mouth, tourism magazines and brochures are the next most important marketing tools after internet. Despite the fact that internet is recognized as the most important marketing tool, guidebooks and brochures are identified to have the main impact on the destination image of Iran, after which comes word of mouth in the second place.
seyed kamal sadeghi; khalil jahangiri
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 111-133
Abstract
Sarein is one the touristic cities of Ardabil province, known for its hot springs and hydrotherapy spots. In light of this, investigating the tourists’ views and demands for this place can be useful in predicting needs, removing scarcities and developing tourism industry in this city. Taking advantage ...
Read More
Sarein is one the touristic cities of Ardabil province, known for its hot springs and hydrotherapy spots. In light of this, investigating the tourists’ views and demands for this place can be useful in predicting needs, removing scarcities and developing tourism industry in this city. Taking advantage of the two-stage Heckman approach, this study estimates the tourists’ WTP for visiting Jamish Goli, Sabalan and Besh Bajilar – three of Sarein hot springs. Also it deals with assessing the causes of tourists’ visits to Sarein, and the state of the city’s amenities in the tourists’ eyes. Requested data sets were obtained through the questionnaires and interviews of 646 individuals who visited the mentioned hot springs. Results revealed that the mean WTP for each visit to Jamish Goli, Sabalan and Besh Bajilar equals
ali atafar; javad khazai pul; mehdi pur mostafa khoshk rudi
Volume 7, Issue 18 , August 2012, Pages 133-156
Abstract
Development of information technology has influenced various domains of business and human life. Tourism industry as one of the world's most profitable industries has seen new experiences and gone through evolutions in recent years, taking giant steps to adapt to modern technologies. The purpose of this ...
Read More
Development of information technology has influenced various domains of business and human life. Tourism industry as one of the world's most profitable industries has seen new experiences and gone through evolutions in recent years, taking giant steps to adapt to modern technologies. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that affect adoption of online hotel booking. An extension of the technology acceptance model constitutes the conceptual framework of the research. Statistical population involves all Noshahr county’s hotel customers, out of which a sample of 226 individuals where randomly selected. The validity of the model has been proved by the structural equation modeling. Also, path analysis was used to analyze the relationship between the study variables. Results of the structural equation modeling indicate that attitude and perceived usefulness are the main factors affecting the intention towards online hotel booking. Also, the added variables of trust, credibility, and consistency influence the intention by way of attitude towards online hotel booking.
