درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

This research explores the challenges and opportunities facing Iran’s hospitality industry from a cultural and historical perspective, with a particular focus on creative tourism. Given the nature of the subject, the study employs a descriptive research method. In terms of data collection, a qualitative approach was adopted. The statistical population comprises managers and deputies within the hospitality industry in Isfahan province. To determine the appropriate number of participants, the saturation rule was applied, ultimately resulting in a sample of 20 individuals selected through purposive sampling. Data collection was conducted using field methods and a semi-structured interview process. The collected data were then analyzed using MaxQDA software. The findings highlight several key strategies for enhancing creative tourism in Isfahan’s hospitality sector. These include developing local experiences, improving the quality of creative services, diversifying tour offerings, establishing local collaboration networks, leveraging technological marketing, and supporting local businesses. 

Takht-e Foulad in Isfahan stands as a significant tourist destination, embodying Iran’s rich spiritual, cultural, religious, and historical heritage. While primarily recognized as a cemetery, its diverse tourism aspects position it as a prominent cultural complex with the potential to serve as a “cultural tourism theme park.” This study examines the complex’s role in Isfahan’s tourism development through a spiritual lens, based on quantitative research conducted from autumn 2021 to summer 2022. Data collection methods included documentary research, library resources, and questionnaires. Analytical findings highlight an inherent spirituality within the Takht-e Foulad Complex, necessitating a holistic approach that integrates the perspectives of tourists, the site, and the local community. The study categorizes the complex’s tourism dimensions into heritage, religious, and event tourism, aiming to craft a spiritually-oriented tourism strategy that contributes to Isfahan’s broader tourism development. The final model presents practical recommendations and strategies to promote spirituality while advancing tourism within the Takht-e Foulad Complex.

The transmission of cultural knowledge plays a pivotal role in preserving cultural identity and promoting the sustainable development of heritage tourism. However, this form of knowledge is primarily tacit and transferred informally across generations, which makes its preservation increasingly challenging, particularly in light of the sudden retirement of experienced experts and the consequent loss of invaluable expertise. This study examines phased retirement as an innovative managerial strategy to facilitate cultural knowledge transfer. Grounded in Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI model, which conceptualises knowledge transfer through the stages of socialisation, externalisation, combination, and internalisation, the research employed a descriptive-analytical design using document analysis, field investigations, and a researcher-designed questionnaire. A total of 220 tourism industry professionals participated, and data were analysed with SPSS and Smart PLS, employing AVE, Fornell-Larcker, factor loadings, Cronbach’s alpha, and structural equation modelling. The findings reveal that phased retirement enhances cultural knowledge transfer by fostering intergenerational interaction, facilitating documentation, and strengthening the competencies of younger employees. The study recommends that tourism managers and policymakers adopt phased retirement strategies to improve cultural sustainability and enhance the quality of heritage tourism services.

This study investigates the mediating role of mobile application satisfaction in the relationship between positive intercultural encounters, cultural intelligence, and tourist experience. It addresses a critical gap in understanding how digital tools facilitate meaningful cross-cultural engagement within tourism contexts. This applied, descriptive-analytical research was conducted among 371 tourists visiting Yazd Province, selected through simple random sampling. Validity was confirmed through convergent and discriminant validity assessments, and reliability was established via Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability. Multivariate normality was confirmed. Subsequently, the hypothesized relationships were examined using SEM in Amos24, employing the robust Maximum Likelihood (MLR) estimation method to ensure robust parameter estimates. Results indicate that while the direct effects between intercultural encounters and cultural intelligence and tourist experience were nonsignificant, significant indirect effects emerged through mobile app satisfaction. Intercultural encounters positively predicted app satisfaction, which in turn enhanced cultural intelligence and tourist experience.  Bootstrapping confirmed significant mediation for cultural intelligence and tourist experience.  Mobile applications serve as pivotal conduits for transforming intercultural interactions into enhanced cultural competence and enriched travel experiences. These findings underscore the importance of digital infrastructure in modern tourism management and offer practical implications for experience design.

Spiritual experiences are essential to individual well-being, offering profound emotional, psychological, and religious benefits. Pilgrimage sites, especially sacred spaces, provide a unique environment for pilgrims to experience personal renewal and spiritual transformation. This study investigates the spiritual experiences of young pilgrims at the Razavi Holy Shrine in Mashhad, Iran, a key pilgrimage site for Shia Muslims. Using an exploratory-descriptive qualitative approach and thematic analysis, the research identifies three main themes: Spiritual Well-being, Connectedness, and Consciousness, each with several subthemes. Spiritual Well-being encompasses positive emotions, energy, happiness, purification, and peace and tranquility, emphasizing the emotional uplift and inner peace experienced by pilgrims. Connectedness includes pilgrims’ connection with God, expressing needs and seeking divine favor, receiving blessings and assistance, and fostering ties with religion and holy leaders. This highlights the shrine’s role in deepening spiritual bonds and providing divine support. Consciousness involves experiences of detachment from routine life, timelessness, self-reflection, and religious awareness, illustrating how the pilgrimage fosters introspection and spiritual enlightenment. These findings contribute to the understanding of religious pilgrimage and spiritual transformation, offering valuable insights for scholars, policymakers, and pilgrimage site administrators. Recognizing the dimensions of spiritual experiences can enhance spiritual tourism and guide future research on spiritual psychology and the transformative power of sacred spaces.

Pro-Poor Tourism (PPT) shifts the focus of tourism development by centering poverty alleviation within inclusive growth, empowerment, and sustainability, aiming to generate economic opportunities, enhancing skills, and uplifting marginalized communities, particularly in rural and underserved areas. This study evaluates PPT's effectiveness using a mixed-methods approach, combining a literature review with empirical data collected from Ameri neighborhood in Ahwaz city, Iran. Drawing on global PPT frameworks, the research identifies and assesses four key criteria: Economic Benefits, Social/Governance, Social/ Cultural, and Environmental Sustainability. Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), Technical experts prioritized Economic Benefits as the most critical criterion, emphasizing on Income Generation and Employment Opportunities. This aligns with literature highlighting economic empowerment’s role in poverty alleviation. However, local community responses indicated only moderate alignment with expert priorities, suggesting a potential gap between expert models and community needs. In contrast, local residents prioritized Governance Structures and Stakeholder Engagement, indicating the importance of participatory governance. They also rated Sustainable Resource Use and Eco-Friendly Practices highly, although receiving less emphasis from experts. Notable discrepancies emerged in perceptions regarding Community Well-Being, Social Equity, and Cultural Preservation, with significant variation among local responses, indicating uncertainty or dissatisfaction in these aspects. The findings supports a multidimensional PPT approach that balances economic gains with inclusive governance, cultural values, and environmental stewardship. By aligning expert insights with local realities, this study provides practical guidance for achieving equitable and sustainable tourism development, especially in ecologically and culturally sensitive regions like Ameri.

Tourism is regarded as a complementary activity that contributes to the sustainability of nomads' livelihoods and raises welfare and living standards, as well as the economic growth of nomadic areas, through the capabilities and attractions of the Shahsavan nomads. The present study tries to identify the scenarios of nomadic tourism in Shahsavan, Ardabil province. The research strategy is a case study through a qualitative study using a multi-faceted method and a cross-sectional time horizon. In data collection, in the first step, key experts were used to collect data to extract the factors affecting nomadic tourism development (NTD) and to examine the impact of these variables on each other. The influential factors were divided into 12, seven promoting and five inhibiting factors. The mutual influence matrix was used to determine the effect of variables on one another, and scenarios were created using propulsions extracted from the influencing factors. After collecting the questionnaires, the scenario was conducted using Scenario Wizard software. The scenarios in the current research were divided into three groups: favourable, intermediate, and unfavourable. According to experts, access to favourable scenarios is accompanied by many limitations and obstacles. Its occurrence requires coherent planning, commitment, and participation from all stakeholders, and the occurrence of unfavourable and catastrophic scenarios also looks pretty pessimistic. According to current trends, the vast majority of experts believe that a slight improvement in the current situation is possible in the future of this type of tourism.

In order to improve the quality of women's personal, professional and family lives while addressing financial concerns, it is essential to consider the improvement of women's working conditions from multiple perspectives. In this regard, the research objective was to investigate the impact of working background conditions on the economic welfare of women employed in handicrafts in less developed rural areas. The statistical population includes all female workers in less developed rural areas of Iran in 2025 who are employed in handicrafts sector. The sampling method used was random cluster with a total of 380 samples selected according to Morgan's table. In order to collect the required data, a questionnaire prepared by the researcher was used, which included two sections to assess economic welfare and working background conditions. The results of the study systematically show that the dimensions of "unbiased behavior in work”, "balance between work and life”, and "social support" have the most significant impact on the economic welfare of women engaged in handicrafts. The findings of this study underscore the necessity of implementing targeted support policies to enhance equitable organizational practices, fortify work-life balance, and broaden social support networks as pivotal strategies for enhancing the economic welfare of rural women.