| Abstract |
This article is the result of applied research on the use of potential tourist resources to remove obstacles to the development of tourism marketing and subsequently cause tourism business growth to improve the quality of life in the host communities. The method to achieve this goal is practical and straightforward: First, specific indicators are introduced to measure the rate of destruction/degradation of tourist sites in a period. Then, by referring to the opinions of tourism business experts, official administration managers, and tourists and by using a mathematical model, the financial losses of the tourism business at tourist sites and resulting total economic losses of the tourism business due to the delay in the reconstruction/upgrading of indicators at tourism sites are calculated. A model is developed and simulated for 10 tourist sites in Iran to calculate the damages to 38 indicators in the period of 1978-2019. In the next step, the weaknesses and threats related to Iran's tourism business are discovered to reform the indicators, especially those related to planning, policymaking, and the democratic rights of tourists and the host community and to the necessary infrastructure and provision of decent services. Field studies reveal that the number of visitors to the 10 tourist sites since 2014 has declined on average from 8% to 25% due to the implementation of Sharia law, the violation of democracy, and the lack of necessary infrastructure. The model that this article proposes for economic growth through the development of the tourism business may feasibly be applied to similar tourist site areas. |
