Determining the Components of the Development of Economic Tourism in Iran with An Emphasis on Climate Change

The climate change is regarded as one of the key factors affecting tourism industry. The aim of this study is to assess the current state of ecotourism in Iran and to provide solutions for its sustainable development with an emphasis on climate change variables. For this purpose, the SWOT approach and the information extracted from the questionnaires designed for 60 experts and professional in this field at the Tourism and Environmental Protection Organization have been used for the year 2018. The results of the SWOT matrix demonstrates that the final score of the internal and external factors evaluation matrix was 2/203 and 2/756, respectively. This would indicate that the status of Iranian tourism is at Home of Conservative Strategies (WO). The results also imply that the different ecosystem and spectacular and pristine landscapes weighing 0/256 are allocated the highest strengths. Likewise, reducing rainfall, increasing temperature and lack of strategic planning in the tourism sector with the participation of the Environmental Organization with a score of 0.086 are among the most important weaknesses. According to our findings, increasing the environmental quality with a score of 0.188 is the best opportunity while increasing the temperature, reducing annual rainfall and increasing the degradation and environmental pollution is one of the most important threats to the development of Iranian tourism with a score of 0.068. It follows,therefore, that with effective management of institutions and the implementation of supportive laws and regulations together with monitoring their implementation and raising public awareness in the field of tourism and conservation of the environment, to enhance further development of tourism industry in Iran.