Investigating the tourism potential and capacity of Mesgarabad resort and presenting an operational plan in District 15 of Tehran Municipality

ABSTRACT
The wide concentration of facilities in the city of Tehran always provides the basis for attracting people from the surrounding areas into the urban area. The continuation of this situation, in addition to fueling the spatial inequalities and the wide gap between the center and the surrounding areas, has led to the fattening and increase of the population of the metropolis of Tehran. The 15th urban area of Tehran and especially the peripheral neighborhoods such as Mesgarabad and Masoudiyeh are among the places that are in an unfavorable situation compared to many urban areas of Tehran in terms of development level, wealth indicators, urban services and living facilities. Therefore, the development of tourism and recreational activities in this area will not only help to increase the urban living facilities for the deprived residents, but it will be very effective in terms of attracting investment and increasing local job creation platforms and infrastructure development. The general purpose of this research is to plan for the development of tourism and recreational activities in Mesgarabad or Narjes Khatun resort, which has been collected in the form of documents. This research is classified as applied research. The obtained results show that today despite having high potential as a resort, there is still a need for planning to create many infrastructures in the field of water supply, electricity, transportation network, parking, providing more access and entry and exit, resolving conflicts with Surrounding properties include fencing, further strengthening of existing dune mounds, recreational facilities
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Creation and development of tourism activities in urban areas, especially in less developed and underprivileged areas, is an opportunity to compensate for service and development deficiencies by attracting investment and developing tourism infrastructure. Urban and suburban tourism has become increasingly important as one of the important parts of the tourism industry in today's era. District 15 of Tehran Municipality is one of the peripheral areas that, despite its role as a gateway and key for this city, has a wide gap in terms of amenities and service facilities. This is while there are platforms for removing deprivation and attracting investment in this region, and it is possible to increase the quality of urban life in this region by relying on them. One of the most important tools and capacities to remove deprivation and increase biological well-being for different groups is the available opportunities for the development of tourism and leisure activities. Due to its location on the outskirts of the city, Mesgarabad resort site has the necessary capacities to compensate for some of the deficiencies and deprivations in the 15th district of Tehran and other neighborhoods and areas. The 15th urban area of Tehran and especially the peripheral neighborhoods such as Mesgarabad and Masoudiyeh are among the places that are in an unfavorable situation compared to many urban areas of Tehran in terms of development level, wealth indicators, urban services and living facilities. Therefore, the development of tourism and recreational activities in this area will not only help to increase the urban living facilities for the deprived residents, but it will be very effective in terms of attracting investment and increasing local job creation platforms and infrastructure development. The general purpose of this research is to plan for the development of tourism and recreational activities in Mesgarabad resort.
 
Methodology
In this research, first of all, various strengths and weaknesses were extracted through field studies. Then, by using the questionnaire of experts, the main drivers in the development (non-development) of the studied area to create a tourism space were identified, which was done to calculate the impact of different types of drivers on each other using the mutual influence analysis method with the help of MICMAC software. The method of conducting this research is descriptive-analytical and has an applied nature. The data has been collected both in the field and in documents.Part of the information required in this project is aerial images and satellite photos. Some of the maps used in this research are topographic maps with a scale of 1:5000, a map of regional waterways, a topographic map (with a scale of 1:250000), a geological map, a soil map, and the like.
 
Results and discussion
According to the field studies, the studied area can be transformed into attractive tourist places in the east of Tehran through the development and exploitation of existing natural potentials. Among the strengths and opportunities of this area, we can mention the urban landscape that is provided through the special topography of this area and its location that makes it easy to access. Therefore, considering the actual and potential capacities, it has been tried to locate the types of users that a tourist site needs in a scientific-specialized way. After preparing the map of the proposed development model of the site, developing the tourism development scenarios, and to identify the main drivers, the combined method of interaction analysis and Delphi was used by MicMAc software.
 
Conclusion
The obtained results show that this resort, which was handed over to Tehran Municipality by the executive headquarters of Farman Imam (RA) in 2013; Today, despite having high potential as a resort, there is still a need to plan to create many infrastructures in the field of water supply, electricity, transportation network, parking, providing access and more entrances and exits, solving conflicts with surrounding properties, creating a fence, and strengthening more. It has existing dune mounds (covering about 50% of the area), recreational facilities, etc. Also, according to the analysis of MICMAC, it can be concluded that factors such as having natural attractions, pristine space that can be loaded, having natural views and the location of the site at the entrance of the city are influential factors in the development of the tourism capacity of Mesgarabad resort. In addition, the analysis shows that despite some weaknesses such as the lack of usable water resources and proximity to polluting limestone mines, the shortcomings can be compensated with the help of the capacities and potentials of the studied site.
 
Funding
There is no funding support
 
Authors’ Contribution
Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved thecontent of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.