Cultural-Historical Capabilities of Tourism and their Impact on Tourism Development in Gilan Province

This study aimed to investigate the cultural-historical marketing capabilities of tourism in Gilan province. The efforts have been made to discover the dimensions of cultural-historical tourism marketing and the effects of these dimensions on development of tourism.

This study, conducted in 2023 in Gilan province and employed a mixed qualitative-quantitative approach. The qualitative part was executed using the grounded theory and the suggested steps of Glaser and Strauss. The statistical population included all senior managers of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts Organization of Gilan province, as well as experts in the fields of business and tourism management. Additionally, senior managers of municipal, provincial, and governorate organizations were included, with 10 individuals selected for interviews using the snowball sampling method. In the quantitative section, a survey method was employed through the use of questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using structural equation modeling.

The results of structural equation modeling indicated that factors related to historical and cultural tourism marketing had a significant and positive impact on destination competitiveness. Destination competitiveness, in turn, had a positive and meaningful effect on destination development. The environmental conditions of the country also had a positive and meaningful impact on destination development. Tourist industry infrastructure had a positive and meaningful effect on destination development. Finally, destination development had a positive and meaningful impact on integrated marketing communications in tourism.

The effective factors on cultural-historical tourism in the city of Gilan include destination competitiveness, historical and cultural tourism marketing, destination development, tourist industry infrastructure, environmental conditions, and integrated marketing communications in tourism.