Sustainable Tourism Development Strategies and Investment Opportunities (Case Study: Anzali Free-Trade Industrial Zone)

The pure opportunities available in the free zones, benefiting from new technologies and risk-free investments, have attracted entrepreneurs and private sector investors in various fields, especially tourism, in the hope of a bright future and it has made economic opportunities to a safe and profitable investment. In fact, free zones, using their unique features and advantages, provide services to investors and tourists at home and abroad. Anzali Free Zone is also one of the seven free-trade zones in Iran, which has special importance in this regard. To the extent that, fluctuations in industrial investments and foreign exchange incomes have caused the tendency to invest in service sectors and attract tourists to this region. Therefore, this research identified sustainable tourism development strategies and investment opportunities in Anzali Free-Trade Industrial Zone. 

The present study was applied research in terms of purpose and it was a descriptive survey in terms of methodology. This article was conducted using the SWOT analytical model and the statistical sample of the research was 10 professors, managers, and senior experts in tourism. 

Anzali Free Zone has relative strength in terms of internal factors (average above 2.5) and has 9 critical success factors (rank 4) and 5 critical failure factors (rank 1). In general, the results suggest that the strengths of the region will overcome its weaknesses. It is also relatively strong in terms of external factors (average above 2.5) and has 10 environmental opportunities for success (rank 4) and 5 environmental threats (rank 1) that may lead to failure. So, findings showed that this region is located in the strategic point of SO and according to the proposed strategies, the investment opportunities of the region are as follows: investing in water, nature, and trade tourism projects, creation of ecotourism resorts, investment in tourism projects such as the Marina project, designing daily nature tours in the region, investing in tourist transportation projects (renting bicycles, carriages, etc.), establishing service companies what organizing scientific camps in the region, sponsoring beach sports programs, investing in reconstruction projects of region, and Investing in mass advertising projects of regional services. 

Based on the results, it is clear that by exploiting the strengths of tourism in the region, it is possible to make maximum use of environmental opportunities for the development of sustainable tourism, and currently, tourism projects of the region have a better position for investment. In this regard, it is better to use the nature of the region (wetland, forest, sea, beach, and etc.) in order to develop tourism. Types of tourism (sports, water, and, etc.) should be considered as much as possible. The residents have a critical role in this regard. The tourism department of the region, in cooperation with the university, should design and develop tourism development programs. It is necessary to form a working group and a think tank and, use collective intelligence to plan according to all aspects. Regional laws should be reviewed to remove problematic laws and facilitation laws should be considered.