Grading the Factors Impacting on Tourism Development of Tehran Metropolis Focusing on Cultural Industries Applying Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC Analysis

Diversity of economic activities, agglomeration of educational centers, concentration on technological initiatives and information generation, possession of the most important cultural centers, and arrangement of the most significant artistic and cultural events in Tehran Metropolis have provided a large-scale potential for cultural and educational activities and a special condition for cultural tourism development; however, tourism development plans adopted by Tehran officials are slight proportional to its regional capacities and have thus proved unsuccessful to reach a perceptible and appropriate tourism development. The chief objective borne by this research is, accordingly, identification of the factors and indices impacting on Tehran’s cultural tourism development, which, with respect to sundry commonalities of this type of tourism and creative and cultural industries, focuses on these factors, as well. Indices have been extracted through literature reviews and their content analysis. Using Delphi questionnaire, afterwards, experts’ and urban planners’ opinions and comments were extracted in two stages. Results of the first stage of Delphi questionnaires graded indices in Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). Outcomes of the second stage were analyzed byMICMAC software to determine impacts and susceptibilities of the indices on each other. Results of the study show that the index Rules and Regulations is graded in the level 10 and the indices ‘Suitable Institutional Partnership and Labor Division among Different Actors of Industry’, ‘Political and International Relations’, and ‘Existence of Cultural Tourism Attractions’ are graded in the level 9 aimed at development of Tehran Metropolis’s cultural tourism. In fact, indices of the levels 9 and 10 are fundamental ones to which more attention should be paid with regard to results of interpretive-structural analysis in development of Tehran cultural tourism.