Intangible cultural heritage, a cornerstone of sustainable tourism development, plays a pivotal role in differentiating destinations and attracting visitors. However, its effective preservation and promotion require a comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence its development. This study employs a qualitative research approach, specifically an exploratory design. The target population comprises experts in the field of tourism and cultural heritage, and snowball sampling was utilized to select participants. The study data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed by using the thematic analysis method and MAXQDA software. The method of retesting the interviews has been used to confirm and increase the validity of the interviews’ results. The output obtained from the analysis of the interviews includes 270 open codes and 80 axial codes in the form of 18 sub-themes, which are as following: creative tourists, infrastructure, capitalistic view of heritage, linking heritage with tourism, women's relationship with intangible heritage, destination management, organization, combination of creativity and culture, empowering and augmenting women’s capability, education, motivation, women's role, supporting women, supporting creative tourism, capacity and competitiveness of the destination, characteristics of the destination, handicrafts and festivals. These themes have been embedded in the three main categories of creativity, creative tourism and development of intangible heritage. On the basis of that, a model for the development of intangible cultural heritage was proposed. The findings of this study showed that in many destinations, the development of creative tourism and the creativity of the residential community, especially women, can be one of the branches of tourism development and as an incentive for the development of intangible cultural heritage.
