Investigating the Impact of Tourism Destination Branding on the Development of Urban Tourism (Case Study: Zanjan City)

Extended Abstract

Introduction

Developing destination brands has become a vital strategic tool in today's competitive tourism industry. A successful tourism brand can have a great impact on attracting tourists and contribute to the overall development of a destination in various aspects such as culture, society, and economy. Hence, the role of the brand in urban development and progress cannot be denied. Zanjan, due to its proximity to the capital and its important historical and cultural attractions, can have a significant impact on the progress and development of tourism, which requires the creation of a brand. A successful tourism brand at the urban level of Zanjan can have a significant impact on attracting tourists and ultimately developing the cultural, social, and economic dimensions of the city. Hence, the purpose of this research is to rank the tourist destinations of Zanjan based on the degree of branding and the impact of this brand on the development of tourism in this city.



Methodology

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical, and library and field study methods and questionnaire tools were used to collect data. The statistical population of the present study is experts, professors, and activists in the field of tourism in Zanjan. The snowball sampling method was used to determine the sample size (40 samples) in the present study. The study district in the present study is Zanjan, and 40 questionnaires were distributed among experts in the field of urban tourism in this district. The research questions include 7 sections that measure and evaluate the impact of 10 important Zanjan tourism destinations on urban tourism development according to various criteria. The 10 selected important symbols of Zanjan city include Zanjan Grand Mosque, Seyyed Ibrahim Imamzadeh, Traditional Bazaar, Sabzeh Maidan Pedestrian Street, Zolfaghari Mansion, Laundry Museum, Natural History Museum, Mellat Park, Zanjan University, and Ishraq Commercial-Entertainment Complex. The impact of each symbol on urban tourism development was measured according to 7 criteria as historical, cultural, symbolic, facilities and services, attractiveness, economic efficiency, and accessibility. In this study, the reliability of the questionnaire data was measured using SPSS software with Cronbach's alpha. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire questionnaire is 0.974, which means that the questionnaire has high consistency. The questionnaire questions were presented in the form of a 7-point Likert scale (very low, low, below average, average, above average, high, and very high). Specialized questions related to tourism destination branding are 70 questions, and 10 selected tourism destinations were tested in the form of 7 criteria such as historical, cultural, symbolic, economic efficiency, facilities and services, accessibility, and attractiveness. SPSS software and the TOPSIS fuzzy model were used to analyze statistical data. This study analyzed the data in the TOPSIS FUZZY SOLVER software environment to rank tourism destinations.



Results and discussion

The findings showed that among all the criteria, the average of the historical criterion was 4.5, which has the highest average. The results also showed that the historical, accessibility, and attractiveness values of 9 are the closest to the ideal solution. In other words, respondents have given more points to the historical, accessibility, and attractiveness, which indicates the greater potential of these criteria for branding the city of Zanjan. In the next rankings, the cultural, symbolic, economic, and service criteria are the closest solutions to the ideal solution, with a value of 7. The traditional market of Zanjan, which is similar to the ideal solution with a value of 0.5669, has won the first rank in the tourism branding of Zanjan. The second and third ranks are related to the Laundry Museum and the Salt Men Museum, with a similarity of 0.5227 and 0.5188. The last rank is related to the Imamzadeh of Seyyed Ibrahim, which has the lowest similarity to the ideal solution, with a value of 0.3415. In other words, this tourist destination has the least impact on the tourism branding of Zanjan. The closer the similarity option value is to 1, the closer the solution is to the ideal answer and is the best option. So, the traditional market of Zanjan, with a value of 0.5669, is the closest option to number 1 among the other research options. As a result, it has a close similarity to the ideal solution. The results from TOPSIS FUZZY SOLVER software show that the traditional market of Zanjan has achieved the top rank in the branding of tourist destinations in Zanjan, with the closest distance to the number 1.



Conclusion

The results showed that the historical, accessibility, and attractiveness criteria with a value of 9 are the closest to the ideal solution, indicating the greater potential of these criteria for branding of Zanjan. The cultural, symbolic, economic, and service criteria are also close to the ideal solution with a value of 7. The results also show that the degree of importance of Zanjan's tourist destinations is not far from each other from the perspective of Zanjan citizens. Hence, the Zanjan Traditional Bazaar with the first rank and a similarity of 0.5669, the Laundry Museum with the second rank and a similarity of 0.5227, and the Salt Men Museum with the third rank and a similarity of 0.5188 contributed to the branding of this city.