Urban Economics and Planning

Urban Economics and Planning

Estimating the Tourism Carrying Capacity of Yasouj City and Presenting a Strategic Plan with the Help of a SWOT Analysis Model

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Vajihe Ghorbannia Kheybari 1
Elahe Azimi 2
Mohsen Armin 1
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Natural Resources Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran
2 Ph.D. candidate in Urban Planning, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
10.22034/uep.2024.463401.1507
Abstract
Introduction 
With the rapid development of the social economy of today’s world and the improvement of living standards, people have become more interested in tourism, which has caused tourism to develop rapidly. Tourism is a vital driving industry for the development of the national economy, which has economic and ecological functions and is essential in the sustainable development of cities. Cities provide the field of tourism development by providing various goods and services from economic, social, and cultural activities as well as service activities such as hospitality and leisure facilities. Tourism develops in cities that benefit from suitable facilities and services and have historical, cultural, and artistic attractions. The explosive growth of domestic and foreign tourism in recent years, while promoting the economic development of different countries and regions, has brought many problems and challenges. Therefore, evaluating the tourism capacity of a tourist destination city is of great importance for realizing the sustainable development of the city’s tourism. Yasouj is one of the cities with the potential and suitable weather conditions to attract foreign and domestic tourists. The existence of tourist attractions in natural, historical, and cultural fields can provide economic, social, and environmental growth and development in this city and become an important tourism hub at the national level. However, it should be noted that the development of tourism requires determining the capacity and gaining comprehensive knowledge of the natural resources, threats, and opportunities in the external environment and recognizing its internal weaknesses and strengths to measure the situation and formulate strategies for guidance and the control of its management system.
Materials and Methods
In this research, the tourism capacity of Yasouj City has been evaluated using the Douglass model. To examine the strengths and bottlenecks of the tourism industry, finally, solutions to strengthen and develop it, its strategic analysis using the SWOT technique has been studied. The city of Yasouj is the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces in the southwest of Iran, next to the Beshar River and on the slopes of Dena peaks between 30 degrees 9 minutes to 31 degrees 32 minutes north latitude and 49 degrees 43 minutes to 51 degrees 52 minutes east longitude is located at an altitude of 1870 meters above sea level. Due to its location on the slopes of Zagros and its mountainous area, this city has beautiful nature and a mild climate for tourists to spend their free time. For this reason, many tourists travel to this mountain city every year. In this regard, first, the values of the parameters of the Douglass model were determined with detailed field surveys. Then, the strengths and weaknesses were determined in a fully operational manner. The opportunities and threats of the studied parks in terms of camping tourism were examined on a detailed scale, and each factor was weighted by asking for the opinion of experts and using the expert method.
Findings
The calculation of the capacity of the studied parks showed that these parks have a capacity equal to 732,643 tourists per year and 5,426 per day. With the field survey of the studied parks, it was found that only a 2-hectare enclosed area in Mehrvarzi Park is relatively standard for camping activities, which has a capacity of 29,176 tourists per year and 216 tourists per day, which is about 4% of the number of tourists who visit non-standard space, they resort to camping in the studied parks. To examine the strengths and bottlenecks of the tourism industry and finally provide solutions to strengthen and develop it, the tourism development strategy of the parks was determined using the SWOT technique. The results showed that the strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), and threats (T) of the tourism industry in the parks of Yasouj City have scores of 2.98, 3.15, 3.19, and 26.3, respectively. Based on the calculation of the coefficients of internal and external factors, it was determined that the strategy in the studied parks is defensive (W-T). To turn weaknesses into strengths and threats into opportunities for the development of tourism in Yasouj city, defensive strategies such as raising the awareness of tourists to prevent the destruction and pollution of parks, paying attention to the aspects of health and cleanliness in parks, and strengthening the sense of security provided in parks.
Conclusion
In the present study, it can be concluded that the urban and tourism trustee organizations in Yasouj city only carry out the usual physical developments and create minimal facilities and conditions, and do not think about the tourism issue in a precise manner and according to global standards and if the situation continues in the same way. In contrast, the tourist-friendly environment of urban parks will be destroyed daily, and the number of tourists will also decrease. In this sense, it will harm the city’s income generation and employment. Before designing and implementing tourism infrastructures and facilities in urban parks, measuring their capacity and using them according to their principles and capacity is necessary. In the general review of the studied parks and the level of reception of tourists, at first glance, it seems that the parks of Yasouj city have suitable conditions for tourism, but by examining all internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats) and their analysis together revealed that by chance, weaknesses outweigh strengths and threats outweigh opportunities. A defensive strategy should be adopted to deal with internal weaknesses and external threats to park tourism management.
Keywords
Carrying Capacity
Douglass Model
SWOT Technique
Urban Tourism
Yasouj

Subjects

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Urban Economics and Planning
Volume 5, Issue 2
Spring 2024
Pages 108-121

  • Receive Date 18 June 2024
  • Revise Date 29 July 2024
  • Accept Date 04 August 2024