Investigation the Effect of Cultural Intelligence of Tabriz Bazaar Traders and Shopkeepers on Loyalty of Domestic Tourists

Extended Abstract
Introduction
Tourism has further expanded and has become a more powerful industry in the world, which
highly influences the economy of a country. Also, it is associated with several other sectors, such as advertising, endorsements, product placements, sponsorships, and commercial organizations. With the rapid changes of the twentieth century, tourism has now become one of the most important economic features among various societies. Cities are the most significant tourism destinations due to historical, cultural and shopping centers. Attendance of tourists in urban areas can contribute to the economic prosperity of a region, and this depends on several factors. One of the most important factors is the interaction between the host society and the tourists, which is named cultural intelligence, which affects the sense of loyalty of tourists for re-entry to tourism destinations. Cultural intelligence can lead to effective communication between the host society and tourists and will provide an important competitive advantage for the tourism industry in the region and also it can increase desire of tourist for re-visit of region. In addition, tourists’ loyalty is “a deeply held commitment to rebuy or re-patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future thereby causing same repetitive brand or purchasing same brand set, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour.” Tourists’ loyalty also considers a vital feature for destination marketers, because it is connected to much desire with less cost, which includes keeping existing visitors rather than catching new ones. Due to its high potential and various monuments, Tabriz's city is considered one of the favorite destinations for domestic tourists. Among the monuments of Tabriz, the Tabriz grand bazaar, which UNESCO has registered, attracts an abundance of domestic tourists annually. The Bazaar of Tabriz is a historical market situated in the city center of it. It is one of the oldest bazaars in the Middle East and the largest covered bazaar in the world. So, it is important to study the cultural intelligence of Traders and shopkeepers of Tabriz bazaar and its impact on the loyalty of domestic tourists.
 
Methodology
The statistical population of this study is incoming tourists and visitors to the Tabriz bazaar and the sample size was selected by the Cochran formula (384). For collecting data and information the questionnaire was used. Data analysis was done by SPSS and AMOS. Also, correlation and structural equations were used to investigate the relationship between variables and test the hypotheses of the research.
Results and discussion
General characteristics of the respondents indicate that out of 384 respondents, 51% were male and 49% female. Of the total respondents 65 people were younger than 20, 264 people were between 20 – 45 years old, 43 people were between 45 – 65 years old, and 12 people were over 65 years old. Results showed that cultural intelligence and motivation of cultural intelligence have positive impact on the loyalty of domestic tourists. So that with the increase of one unit of cultural intelligence motivation, the loyalty of domestic tourists increased about 0/699 units, while the increasing of one unit of cultural intelligence of traders and shopkeepers of Tabriz bazaar caused 1/420 units increasing of domestic tourists’ loyalty. Also, the variables of cultural intelligence strategy, cultural intelligence knowledge and cultural intelligence behavior negatively influenced the loyalty of domestic tourists. The increase of one unit of cultural intelligence strategy of traders and shopkeepers of Tabriz bazaar caused to loyalty of domestic tourists decrease about 0/057 units, and increase of one unit of knowledge of cultural intelligence of traders and shopkeepers caused a decrease of 0/207 units of loyalty of domestic tourists and increase of one unit of cultural intelligence behavior of the traders and shopkeepers caused to loyalty of domestic tourists decrease about 0/076 unit.
 
Conclusion
This study was going to find the relationship between cultural intelligence variables, cultural intelligence strategy, cultural intelligence knowledge, cultural intelligence motivation, and cultural intelligence behavior of Tabriz bazaar traders and shopkeepers on loyalty of domestic tourists. Based on the literature, some hypotheses have been written and by using of structural equation modeling the results have shown that this research can be acceptable. The results show that cultural intelligence in the statistical community is admitted by tourists at an acceptable level and tourists' loyalty to the tourism destination and their desire to travel to this city is high so that the cultural intelligence of the Tabriz bazaar traders and shopkeepers effectively and positively affects the loyalty of the domestic tourists. Among the dimensions of cultural intelligence, the motivational dimension and the knowledge dimension were the most and least effective ones, respectively. Based on the research findings, in order to increase the loyalty of domestic tourists, it is suggested to strengthen the motivational dimension of cultural intelligence.