Identifying and modeling creative tourism challenges in the city of Nain

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Master of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Tourism, Faculty of Natural Resources and Earth Sciences, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

3 Assistant professor, department of business administration, faculty of financial science, management and entrepreneurship, university of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

10.22034/grd.2025.22532.1641

Abstract

1. Introduction

Today, creative tourism is one of the most important ways to improve the economic status of cities, but despite the benefits of developing this model of tourism, its implementation is not easy and there are numerous challenges to its realization. In this regard, the city of Nain is one of the urban areas that, despite benefiting from various forms of tourism, namely historical, agricultural, natural, handicrafts and physical, and allocating a share of the city's economy to this activity, faces challenges in various dimensions in realizing creative tourism. Therefore, the present study aims to identify and model the challenges of creative tourism in the city of Nain, to form the basis for proper policy and decision-making by the authorities in this field, and ultimately to remove the obstacles to realizing creative tourism in the city.

2. Research Methodology

The research type is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. The statistical population of the research consists of two levels including officials, city managers and city tourism activists, and academic experts and specialists. The sampling method is judgmental and the sample size for the first group is 17 people in the form of semi-structured interviews based on theoretical saturation and for the second group, 10 people in the form of questionnaires. The data collection method is field-based and its tool is semi-structured interviews in the field of creative tourism challenges and a questionnaire developed by the researcher in the field of modeling creative tourism challenges. To design the interview protocol, after reviewing the relevant literature, the PESTEL technique was used to design questions. Pairwise comparisons between factors were used to design researcher-made questionnaires. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data in the stage of identifying creative tourism challenges and interpretive structural modeling (ISM) was used to model creative tourism challenges.

3. Results and discussion

The results of the interviews revealed 39 challenges of creative tourism in the city, which were divided into 17 subcategories, including "presence of various types of pollution in the city's tourism space", "excessive use of the city's pristine and natural space", "ignorance of local customs and traditions", "lack of use of traditional elements in the recreation of urban spaces", "lack of motivation and willingness to invest", "weakness of government finances in supporting various tourism sectors", "lack of concerned managers in the tourism sector", "divergence of tourism sector managers and lack of teamwork", "lack of necessary tools for guidance and advertising", "lack of primary tourism infrastructure", "weakness of executive management of the tourism sector", "lack of training, preparation and accompanying the host community in tourism activities", "lack of necessary preparation for tourists to familiarize themselves with the culture of the local community", "lack of educational and specialized centers in the tourism sector", "lack of interactions and communications with tourism sector activists in all parts of the country and the world", "ignorance of the city's tourism capacities", "Lack of planning to implement traditional and local ceremonies continuously throughout the year" and 9 main categories including "Existence of environmental pollutants and damage to nature tourism", "Forgetting the original culture and identity of the city", "Lack of a sustainable tourism economy", "Lack of a unified policy and strategy in the field of tourism", "Lack of facilities, equipment and services in the field of tourism", "Lack of creative and convergent management", "Lack of culture and trust building for the local community and tourists", "Lack of specialized and practical training", "Lack of a comprehensive tourism package to offer" were categorized. Next, in order to more accurately analyze the challenges of the city's creative tourism, their interpretative structural model was drawn and the position of each challenge was examined in it.

4. Conclusion

The present study has identified and modeled the challenges of creative tourism in the city of Nain. The results of the theoretical study of the research show that creative tourism is a type of tourism that distinguishes and develops the creative experiences of tourists and prioritizes sustainability. However, there have always been obstacles and challenges to the sustainability of this type of tourism, which include infrastructure challenges such as the lack of adequate and suitable accommodation and amenities, as well as a weak structure for creating jobs, inadequate education, lack of smart technologies, lack of guidelines, and inadequate training. On the other hand, comparing the research findings with theoretical foundations shows that Nain city is one of the urban areas that, despite benefiting from various forms of tourism and allocating a share of the city's economy to this activity, faces challenges in the field of creative tourism, including the lack of specialized training centers in various fields of tourism, a shortage of specialized personnel in the field of tourism, the lack of facilities and equipment necessary for the development of city tourism, lack of investment in various tourism affairs, and the weakness and incompetence of tourism sector managers. These challenges can hinder the path of creative and dynamic economic formation and ultimately the sustainable development of the city's tourism. Therefore, the results of the present study show that there are several challenges in the development of creative tourism in this city. The output of the structural model showed that the challenge of lack of creative and convergent management is the most important of all challenges; Because experts believe that the lack of creative and convergent management in the city of Nain has led to the lack of support from senior city managers for the tourism sector, the lack of alignment between executive institutions and the private sector in this area, the lack of a real and concerned custodian in the city's tourism sector, and the inability of executive managers to actualize the city's existing capacities and capabilities in the tourism sector.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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The Journal of Geographical Research on Desert Areas
Volume 12, Issue 1
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