Sustainable tourism development

Purpose- This study aims to demonstrate the factors affecting the current development pattern of second homes, emphasizing on the role of spatial planning in the forest villages that are considered as the tourism destinations of Mazandaran province.Design/methodology/approach- This is a descriptive-analytical study carried out in nine villages of nine county of Mazandaran as tourism destinations. The statistical population consisted of 18 rural managers and 1980 rural households in the under-study villages.Findings- The ANOVA results showed that the institutional-political factor of social-cultural dimension, with the mean of 3.7133 had the highest effect on the current development pattern of second homes.Research limitations/implications- As the statistical population of the present study consisted of rural managers, it was difficult to have access to the managers since they were involved in agricultural works.Practical implications- Based on the current pattern of second home development, the distribution pattern of the spatial planning of second homes was designed. In order to sustain second home development, the negative points in each step of the input, activity, short-term, and long-term consequences should be reduced or eliminated.Originality/value- Since second home tourism is one of the different types of rural tourism that plays a main role in the development of rural areas, and considering the importance of second home tourism in the development of rural areas and their impact on the villagers' life, it is necessary to clarify the factors affecting second home development. Therefore, this study aims to improve the proper distribution of spatial planning in second homes by providing a spatial planning pattern for second home development.

Nowadays, governments pay a special attention to tourism industry and with special measures and policies, they attempt to develop and expand it, as this industry both brings foreign currency and positively effects  on the economic growth and economic boom. In our country, however there was much less attention to the cities and villages which attracted millions of visitors and their role and position in tourism are rarely addressed. In fact, the role of tourism is neglected and or it is less utilized in planning, especially in urban and rural planning. This is while tourism is the most extensive service industry which, not in the far future and faster than before, is capacitated to emerge for increasing the level of public culture, making peace, dialogue of civilizations, understanding, friendship and amity in an international level  as a pioneer of or equal to other industries, including oil industry. The Islamic Iran, with all the historical, religious and natural monuments has considerable capabilities which should be thoughtfully utilized in the best way. Although Iran has hosted about 3,200,000 foreign tourists in 2011 and then has hosted 5,250,000 foreign tourists in 2016, however, we are still at the beginning of the road for development of this industry. Kashan city also has many precious sites of cultural heritage, which are unique in Iranian cities and in the world and in terms of tourism, especially religious, pilgrimage and historical tourism and considering  its ancient urban fabric, has the potential to attract many tourists from Iran and around the world, in a way that this city hosted 369,446 domestic tourists and 5,010 foreign tourists in the Nowouz  of 2017.  On the other hand 221,739 people of the total tourists during that period have visited Kashan’s Fin garden, of which 219,930 of them were domestic tourists and 1,809 of them were foreign tourists. Therefore, concerned authorities should apply necessary and essential approaches, so that this efficient and profitable industry provides the grounds for job creation especially for youths and bring sustainable tourism development for the ancient city of Kashan and to set high prospects for the future of this city.