Domestic Tourism in Iran.docVIP

MunichPersonalRePEcArchive Domestic Tourism in Iran Mohammad TaghiSheykhi Al-ZahraUniversit 10. May2008 Onlineathttp://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/25309/ MPRAPaperNo. 25309,posted23. September201014:26UTC  TOURISMOS: AN INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF TOURISM Volume 4, Number 1, Spring 2009, pp. 109-123 Domestic Tourism in Iran Mohammad Taghi Sheykhi1 Al-Zahra University The present paper explores and assesses various dimensions of tourist activities, multiple meanings and uses of tourisms in Iran. The country being endowed with numerous historical and cultural attractions, heritages and sites, many Iranians, are interested to visit them. In this way, domestic tourism is improving more than ever before. In addition to other objectives, domestic tourism contributes to the integration within different communities in the country. Therefore, native people are drawn to a variety of national and local attractions such as historical regions, natural landscapes, museums, religious shrines etc. However, the government has been highly insistent in developing state schemes aiming at the expansion of tourism in the country in the past few years. Under the impact of industrialization, per capita income has increased, and thereby the people have started opting, more leisure, travel and tour. Keywords: industrialization. socio-economic change. leisure. cultural attractions. quality of life. INTRODUCTION The main objective of the present paper is to reflect the various concepts and dimensions of domestic tourism in Iran. In that, the author inevitably has to argue different backgrounds of tourism from a general perspective, and to some extent through the Western literature. In this section, various dimensions of tourist activities, multiple meanings and uses of heritage today, and emergence and development (1) of tourism will be assessed. We will also witness how new and changing frames of s