محمدتقی راهنمایی

Tourism organizations have become one of the main users of the internet in recent years by setting their own urban tourism websites. However, not all the websites are effective to promote their goals and objectives. An effective evaluation of urban tourism websites can help organizations on how best to employ them. Using the ICTRT (Information, Communication, Transaction, Relationship and Technical merit) model, this study tries to evaluate the efficiency of Iranian official tourism websites from functional perspective and their role in urban development. The aims of the study fulfilled by content analysis of two official urban tourism websites. The results demonstrated that the websites were not able to support Iranian Tourism Industry effectively. The focuses of these websites mainly based on the basic services such as information and communication. Advanced services such as transaction and relationship building were generally being ignored. Furthermore, a converse correlation was seen between complexity and performance of websites. Based on the research findings suggestions and implications in urban development were discussed.

Large cities and metropolitan areas in developing countries are growing rapidly. These areas grew by attracting all facilities, services and capital of the country. Tehran has been the major city and center for decision and policy making in various administrative, political, economic and socialaspects. This political focus has brought economic, social, educational focus that attracted a vast majority of students of Iran. Based on measures by TOPSIS technic, Tehran province has ranked 19th in terms of development Indicators; therefore, its status is not favorable. There are total of 91 universities or educational institute in Tehran province 75 of which are located in the city of Tehran. There are 527 thousand students currently studying in these institutions which itself indicates the focus on capital city, especially in the field of education. National programs should take decentralization policies from growth poles. Decentralization of higher education as an integrated development policy for Tehran province and the country can bring many fruitful results. Based on recent policy on decentralization, cities of FiroozKooh and Damavand are proposed for attracting students of Azad universities and Varامین is proposed for attracting Payam-e- Noor students of the province and Hashtgerd is proposed for accepting part of activities of governmental universities for undergraduate studies as appropriate locations for identical spatial distribution.