Evaluation of Urban Planning Components in Tourism Sustainable Development, Kashan City

Document Type : Research article

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Geography, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

3 PhD Student of Geomorphology, Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Variety of attractions in Kashan has developed various forms of tourism that can play an important role in entrepreneurship, advertising the goods and local services, increasing income and improving the life standards. In spite of the plenty of picturesque rare attractions, tourism has not been able to exploit these potentials and qualifications in developing sustainable urban tourism due to inattention to the role of urban plan in the course of developing the substructures and instrumentations offering the facilities to the tourists. The present study aims to investigate the role of indicators of urban planning in sustainable development of tourism to answer the following question and eventually offer appropriate strategies to expand and develop its sustainable tourism. The study attempts to explore the influence of urban plan indicators on the sustainable development of tourism in Kashan.
Methodology
This study is executed by an applied research by descriptive-analytical method. The research initially addresses the texts and references of formulating a theoretical framework. Then, the data have been collected through a survey containing observation and interview to provide and fill out the questionnaires according to the research hypothesis. Subsequently, the data have been analyzed through statistic tests (One Sample T test) and eventually the results, strategies and suggestions have been proposed according to the consequences of the findings. Statistic community of the present research contains two groups; the experts associated with tourism (executive system managers, tourism services agents, tour runners and tourism experts) and tourists. Fifty respondents were selected from the first and 138 respondents from the second group as the sample volume. Due to the limitations of professional experts and managers in the first group, effort was made to provide the questionnaires for all. The sample volume for the second group was calculated by using Cochran formula and the variance attained from pretest. The confidence level was 95% and probable error was 5% among 138 respondents. For higher confidence, 150 samples were selected by the researcher. The SPSS software was applied to analyze the statistical results and to process the raw data.
Results and discussion 
For evaluationof urban planning indicators associated with the tourism sustainability development in Kashan, the researches display that the average scores of experts attitudes about the influence of substructures, instrumentations, and urban facilities; in Kashan tourism sustainability development is equal to 3.80 with standard deviation of 1.10 for the data. The results of inferential findings show the degree freedom of 49.00 with T value of 24.28 and significance level of 0.000, p < 0.01. Accordingly, it can be resulted from the substructures, instrumentations and urban facilities are remarkably effective on tourism sustainability development. The studies about visitor attitudes concerning a combination of indicators as substructures, instrumentations, and urban facilities, in Kashan tourism sustainability development show that the city lacks mandatory conveniences as a lot of instrumentations and urban facilities including residential and welfare services and instrumentations, sport and recreational facilities, urban framework structure, parking, entertainment services, transportation system, communication systems and traffic for tourists. The fact is confirmed by the results of inferential findings with T-value of 79.63, degree freedom of 149, and significance level of 0.000. Hence, the evaluation of influential indicators on urban tourism sustainability development from the view point of experts and visitors to illustrate the role of substructures, instrumentations, and urban facilities, in Kashan tourism sustainability development.     
Conclusion
In present study, several indicators were studied to measure and evaluate indicators of urban planning in sustainable development of tourism in Kashan. The research findings showed that urban planning criteria and indicators play a significant role in tourism sustainable development of Kashancity according to statistical analyses of more than half of the managers and experts (68%). The substantial role of urban instrumentations and conveniences in urban tourism sustainability development is related to the role of alternative instrumentation in urban tourism sustainable development. Majority of the respondents (56%) evaluated its influence as high and noteworthy. Generally, the studies showed that the inappropriate function of urban management and planning in indicators as encouraging the private sector to invest in various parts of tourism, training and applying connoisseurs and specialists in tourism field, higher incorporation of people to provide and accomplish the schedule associated with the tourism issue. The function shows an inattention to the factors as stabilization in policy making, decentralization, social justice, equivalence and enjoying. On the other side, evaluation of the situation of urban instrumentation and conveniences from the point of view of tourists showed that urban tourism attractions in Kashan lacks mandatory conveniences as a lot of instrumentations and urban facilities including residential and welfare services and instrumentations, sportive and recreational facilities, urban framework structure, parking, entertainment services, transportation system, communication systems and traffic for tourists can be satisfied. Accordingly, a plan should be scheduled in terms of Kashan sustainability development principles to generate and reinforce the necessary substructures, instrumentations and facilities in the course of tourism development.    

Keywords


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