Eco-tourism residences in Iran: a multiple case study research with a creative tourism approach

This paper aims to introduce a business model for eco-tourism residences based on Osterwalder’s canvas business model with a creative tourism approach. Despite of the significance of creative tourism and business model of eco-tourism residences, there is still a lack of sufficient attention to this issues in the literature. Moreover, regarding the growing tourism industry in Iran and the importance of creative tourism in cultural and adventure tourism, it is necessary to seek new ideas to improve service quality and the business owners’ knowledge of their industry. In this regard, this multiple case study research is conducted by semi-structured interviews with seven eco-tourism residence owners in Iran. Open and axial coding methods were adopted for data analysis. This research identifies the main components of nine blocks of the Osterwalder’s canvas business model for eco-tourism residences, including, value proposition, customer segments, customer relationships, channels, key resources, key activities, key partners, revenue streams and cost structure. The results of this study show that the supply factors of creative tourism framework including diversity of world cultures, the provision of unique culture, infrastructure, local crafts, hospitality, creative industries, cultural tourism resources, and more types of tourism are connected to the value propositions in the presented business model.