The Significance of Iranian Urban Semiotics in Tourism in Line with Future Study of Urban Planning and Sustainable Development

Nominating 2017 as “InternationalYear of Sustainable Tourism for Development” by the United Nations General Assembly shows the significance of paying more attention to the rich heritage of various civilizations and intrinsic values of different cultures. So, the role of tourism in observing the values of different cultures is evident. On the other hand, urban structures are the outcome of different civilizations and nations’ thoughts and ideologies. The structure of Iranian cities is characterized by features that make identity in their physical architecture. Although in the modern age materialistic, quantitative indicators are used to distinguish cities and other types of residential complexes. It should not be disregarded that during the history spiritual, cultural, qualitative factors have played a significant role in defining cities. In the urban structure, semiotics is used frequently to analyze the urban identity. The meaningful use of signs and symbols focuses out attention on semiotics.
The main objective of this paper is to explain the concept of sustainable tourism in Iran as a strategy for sustainable development. Therefore, this study is a qualitative research in terms of data and used variables. In addition, a descriptive-analytical method was used to investigate the relationship between the research variables. The data were collected through documents and field studies. The independent variable was sustainable tourism and environmental perception was used as the dependent variable. Furthermore, urban semiotics and urban physical identity were considered as a tool for sustainable tourism development. Then the literature in the field was reviewed to develop a model based on sustainable tourism using the proposed tool (semiotics). The results of the study suggested that sustainable tourism development can be realized by reproducing components of physical identity of cities and using urban semiotics.