Study and evaluation of roadside and midway tourist attraction potentials (Case study: South Khorasan)

According to tourism department officials of South Khorasan, more that 12 million travelers pass across the province toward south or north regions of the country, while the province itself enjoys very little or nothing of this great potential. For this purpose, descriptive and analytical research method is employed and with sample size of about 300 people, and the designed questionnaires were completed by them. The data that are collected by researcher’s-made questionnaire are analyzed using SPSS data analyzer softwares and SWOT analyzing tool. The results shows that in total, 15 factors are considered as strengths factors of the province, of which the highest point is given to transit capability, i.e. the existence of the west country transit route as the most important transportation path for good and passengers. The lowest point on the other hand is given to associative and people’s contribution in tourism activities of the region. These factors gain a score of 3.93 in total, where developing tourism facilities gain the highest score of 0.60 among them. Upon given information, it is clear that the difference is higher than 2.5, there it can be concluded that the province conditions to deal with sightseeing activities is highly favorable. On this basis, it can be said that the general condition is in favor of external factors, and considering environmental and social constraints of the province, the situation gives hope for more assistance of the government to this province to help it gain advantage of its capabilities.