Identifying and Prioritizing the Indicators of the Creative Tourism City in Babolsar

Document Type : Article extracted From phd dissertation

Authors

1 PhD Student in Urban Planning, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Urban Planning, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

3 Associate Professor of Geography, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

4 Associate Professor of Urban Planning, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

5 Assistant Professor of Geography, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran

Abstract

 
Extended Abstract
Introduction
One of the ways to achieve creative cities is to take advantage of the potential of cities in various fields, especially tourism. Creating creative tourism cities, in addition to paving the way for attracting more tourists and promoting the city as an active tourism destination, can increase the economic empowerment of residents and create jobs related to tourism, and also improve the quality of residents. Therefore, urban planning is very important in turning them into creative tourism cities. Babolsar city has the potential to become a creative city with an emphasis on the tourism approach due to its location and geography and high tourism potentials in various fields, but it is still far from the creative city of tourism. Utilizing these capabilities and opportunities requires identifying and extracting indicators that can be effective in the planning process and turning this city into a creative tourism city. Therefore, in the present study, by examining the criteria and indicators of the creative tourism city, an attempt was made to provide a suitable ground for this city to become a creative tourism city.
 
Methodology
This is an applied research and its method is descriptive-analytical. The required data were collected through library and field studies and was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The statistical population of the study consists of 59966 people living in Babolsar. The sample size was 383 based on Cochran's formula and the statistical sample selection method was random. In the analysis of questionnaire data, first, with the help of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis in SPSS and AMOS software environment, the most important effective indicators in achieving the model of creative tourism city were extracted.
 
Result and discussion
Based on the findings of Kolomogorov-Smirnov test, it was determined that the dimensions of the creative tourism city both have an abnormal distribution and therefore, Pearson correlation coefficient test was used to measure the relationship between variables and factor analysis in SPSS and AMOS software was exerted to measure factor loadings. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient in this study showed that there is a significant relationship between physical, social, economic and tourism potentials of Babolsar. The calculated correlation coefficient between social, physical and economic components with tourism potentials of Babolsar is equal to 0.676, 0.428, 0.370, respectively. To determine the relationship and prediction between the research variables, regression analysis between social, physical and economic variables as an independent variable (predictor) and the creative tourism city of Babolsar as a dependent variable (criterion) was used by the simultaneous method. The results of multiple correlation coefficient show that there is a direct and significant relationship between social, physical and economic variables. Also, the coefficient of determination R2 shows that 57.5% of the variance of urban tourism is related to social, physical and economic variables and 42.5% of the variance is related to factors outside the model. The results of multivariate regression also indicate that social, physical, and economic variables are eligible to predict the creative tourism city. Also, the results of regression line slope (B) for all predictor components show that there is a direct relationship between predictor components. The beta coefficient (B) is also used as a measure of the relative importance of the variables. Therefore, comparing the social variable (0.089), economic variable (0.375) and physical variable (0.105), we can understand the importance of the economic variable dimension compared to the other ones. Accordingly, these components, based on importance, include economic, social and physical variables, respectively. Based on the regression relationship, achieving a creative tourism city will depend on changes in social, economic and physical variables. Considering the above relationship, for each unit of economic variable 0.789, social variable 0.681 and physical variable 0.498 will be added to achieve creative tourism city in Babolsar. The results of factor analysis showed that all factors such as  business processes and tourism economy,  creative and innovative thinking, cultural and spiritual capital, sustainable infrastructure,  attractiveness and diversity, tradition and identity, quality of tourism,  knowledge,  education, deepening the tourist relationship with the host community,  multiplicity and diversity of tourism products, and strengthening the participation of residents, respectively, have most factor loadings to achieve a creative tourism city. Based on the appropriate fit of the research conceptual model, the consistency of the conceptual model with the collected data is confirmed.
 
Conclusion
In the present study, the local criteria of the creative tourism city in Babolsar were extracted and explained. The results of Pearson correlation coefficient in this study showed that there is a significant relationship between physical, social, economic and tourism potentials of Babolsar city equal to 0.676, 0.428, 0.370, respectively. The results of factor analysis also showed the all factors such as  business processes and tourism economy,  creative and innovative thinking, cultural and spiritual capital, sustainable infrastructure,  attractiveness and diversity, tradition and identity, quality of tourism,  knowledge,  education, deepening the tourist relationship with the host community,  multiplicity and diversity of tourism products, and strengthening the participation of residents, respectively, have most factor loadings to achieve a creative tourism city. As a result, Babolsar city has a high potential to become a creative tourism city. In fact, according to the cultural, social, economic, environmental and physical potentials and strategic location of Babolsar, this city can take effective steps to become a creative tourism city.

Keywords


  1. ابراهیم‌نیاسماکوش، سعید (1392) بررسی نقش گردشگری شهری در توسعه اجتماعی-فرهنگی، اقتصادی و محیطی مطالعه موردی: شهر بابلسر، پایان‌نامه کارشناسی ارشد، برنامه‌ریزی شهری، به راهنمایی علی خاکساری رفسنجانی و مشاوره غلامرضا لطیفی، دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی، تهران، ایران.
  2. افصح‌حسینی، فاطمه‌سادات؛ ذبیحی، حسین؛ جهانشاهلو، لعلا (1397) جایگاه ابعاد و تحقق رقابت‌پذیری شهری در مدیریت شهری، فصلنامه مطالعات مدیریت شهری، سال 10، شماره.34، صص. 91-78.
  3. بذرافشان، جواد و بامری، علی (1397) بررسی و تحلیل وضعیت گردشگری خلاق در شهر زاهدان، فصلنامه برنامه‌ریزی منطقه‌ای، سال 8، شماره 31، صص. 180-167.
  4. برابری، معصومه؛ فیروزمند، مارال؛ هاشم پور، فهیمه (1395) بررسی تحلیل اثرات اقتصادی گردشگری شهری از دیدگاه شهروندان (مطالعه موردی شهر بابلسر)، مجله علوم جغرافیایی، دوره 12، شماره 24، صص. 55-40.
  5. جهانیان‌بهمنیری، روح‌الله (1395) اثر گردشگری بر توسعه انسانی، مجله برنامه‌ریزی و توسعه گردشگری، سال 2، شماره 7، صص. 24-11.
  6. رضائیان‌قراگزلو، علی؛ قادری، اسماعیل؛ میرعباسی، رمضان (1391) برنامه‌ریزی شهر خلاق، تهران: انتشارات آذرخش.
  7. شاطریان، محسن؛ حیدری‌سورشجانی، رسول؛ ورفی‌نژاد، ژیلا (1398) مدل‌سازی تأثیرات گردشگری شهری بر کیفیت زندگی و شهر خلاق در شهر کرمانشاه، آمایش جغرافیایی فضا، سال 9، شماره 33، صص. 60-51.
  8. شفیعی، زاهد؛ فرخیان، فیروزه؛ میرقدر، لیلا (1393) اصفهان به‌عنوان شهر خلاق صنایع‌دستی با رویکرد توسعه گردشگری، فصلنامه انجمن جغرافیای ایران، دوره جدید، سال 12، شماره 43، صص. 278-251.
  9. شهابیان، پویان و رهگذر، عرفان (1391) پیوند محیط خلاق یا شهر، مجله منظر، دوره 4، شماره 19، صص. 73-67.
  10. ضرابی، اصغر؛ موسوی، میرنجف؛ کشکولی، علی‌باقر (1393) بررسی میزان تحقق‌پذیری شهر خلاق؛ مقایسه تطبیقی بین شاخص‌های توسعه پایدار شهری و معیارهای ایجاد شهر خلاق، جغرافیا و توسعه فضای شهری، سال 1، شماره 1، صص. 17-1.
  11. کلانتری، محسن؛ رجایی، سیدعباس؛ فتوحی‌مهربانی، باقر (1395) تحلیلی بر برخورداری کلان‌شهرهای ایران از شاخص شهر خلاق، پژوهش‌های جغرافیای برنامه‌ریزی شهری، دوره 4، شماره 4، صص. 612-587.
  12. Bianchini, Franco. & Landry, charles. (1994) The creative city, Published by Comedia, UK.
  13. Bustomi, Thomas. & Pamungkas, Raditya. (2018) Performance Evaluation of Tourism Sector Policy in Support of Bandung Creative City, Journal of Social Science Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.169-183.
  14. Canavan, Brendan. (2016) Tourism, Creativity and Sustainability, In International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues, 22nd ­ 24th, Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
  15. Durmaz, Serhat Bahar. (2015) Analyzing the Quality of Place: Creative Clusters in Soho and Beyoglu, Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp.93-124.
  16. ­Florida, Richard. (2002) The rise of the creative class: And how its transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life, Basic Books, New York.
  17. Florida, Richard. (2005) Cities and the Creative class, American Sociological Association, City & Community, published New York: Routledge, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 3–19.
  18. Florida, Richard. (2014) creative class and economic development, Journal of Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 28, 3, pp. 196 – 205.
  19. Horng, Jeou Shyan; Tsai, Chang Yen; Yang, Ting Chi; Liu, Chih Hsing; Hu, Da Chan (2016) Exploring the relationship between proactive personality, work environment and employee creativity among tourism and ospitality employees, International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol 54, No. 3, pp. 1-25.
  20. Hospers, Gert– Jan. (2003) creative cities: breeding places in the knowledge economy, Knowledge, Technology & Policy, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp.143-162.
  21. Landry, Charles. (2013) Creative City Index Comfortable or Captivating, An assessment of Palmerston North, Print synergy & Published by Palmerston North Ciry Council.
  22. Landry, Charles. (2012) The creative city: A toolkit for urban innovators, uk: Earthscan Publishes in association WWF-UK.
  23. Marques, Lenia & Borba, Carla. (2017) Co-creating the city: Digital technology and creative tourism, Tourism Management Perspectives Journal, Vol 24, pp. 86-93.
  24. Musterd, Sako. (2010) The Creative Cultural Knowledge City, Some Conditions, Paper presented at the university of Kaiserlautern.
  25. Nekouie Sadri, Bahram (2009) Grounding Grounds with Emphasis on Iran, Second Edition, Tehran, Iran, Samt.
  26. Pratt, Andy C. (2008) Creative cities: The cultural industries and the creative class, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 90, No. 2, pp. 107–117.
  27. Ratiu, Dan Eugen. (2013) Creative cities and/or sustainable cities: Discourse and practices, City, Culture and Society, Vol 4, No. 3, pp.125-135.
  28. Redaelli, Eleonora. (2011) Analyzing the ‘‘creative city" governance: Relational processes in Columbus, Ohio, City Culture and Society Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 85-91.
  29. Richards, Greg & Marques, Lenia. (2012) Exploring Creative Tourism: Editors Introduction, Journal of Tourism Consumption and Practice, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp.1-11.
  30. Richards, Greg. (2011) Creativity and Tourism, Annals of Tourism Research Journal, Vol. 38, No.4, pp. 1225- 1253.
  31. Stevenson, Deborah. & Matthews, Amie. (2013) Culture and the city: Creativity, tourism,
  32. leisure,1 st Edition, published by Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon, New York.
  33. Tan, Siow Kian. & Luh, Ding Bang. & Kung, Shiann.Far. (2014) A taxonomy of creative tourists in creative tourism, Tourism Management, Vol. 42, pp.248-259.
  34. (2006) Towards sustainable strategies for creative tourism, Discussion report of the planning meeting for 2008 international conference on creative tourism Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S.A.
  35. Zimmerman, Jeffrey. (2008) From brew town to cool town: neoliberals and creative city development strategy in Milwaukee, Cities, Vol.25, No. 4, pp. 230–242.
  36. Ebrahimnia Samakoush, Saeed (2013) A Study of the Role of Urban Tourism in Socio-Cultural, Economic and Environmental Development: Babolsar, Master Thesis, Urban Planning, Superviser by Ali Khaksari Rafsanjani and adviser by Advised by Gholamreza Latifi, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran Iran. [In Persian].
  37. Afsah Hosseini, Fatemeh Sadat., Zabihi, Hussein., & Jahanshahloo, Lala. (2018) The position of dimensions and the realization of urban competitiveness in urban management, Urban Management Studies Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 34, pp. 78-91. [In Persian].
  38. Bazrafshan, Javad. & Bamri, Ali. (2018) Study and analysis of the situation of creative tourism in Zahedan, Regional Planning Quarterly, Vol. 8, No 31, pp. 180-167. [In Persian].
  39. Barabari, Masoumeh., Firoozmand, Maral., & Hashempour, Fahimeh (2016) Analysis of the economic effects of urban tourism from the perspective of citizens (Case study of Babolsar city), Journal of Geographical Sciences, Vol. 12, No. 24, pp. 40-55. [In Persian].
  40. Jahanian Bahnamiri, Ruhollah (2016) The effect of tourism on human development, Journal of Tourism Planning and Development, Vol.2, No. 7, pp. 24-11. (In persian)
  41. Rezaian Qaragazlu, Ali., Qaderi, Ismail., & Mir Abbasi, Ramzan. (2012) Creative City Planning, Tehran, Azarakhsh Publications. [In Persian].
  42. Shaterian, Mohsen., Heidari Sourshajani, Rasool., & Varfinejad, Jila. (2019) Modeling the effects of urban tourism on quality of life and creative city in Kermanshah, geographical planning of space, Vol.9, No.33, pp. 60-51. [In Persian].
  43. Shafiee, Zahed., Farrokhian, Firoozeh., & Mir Ghadr, Leila. (2014) Isfahan as a creative city of handicrafts with a tourism development approach, Iranian Geographical Association Quarterly, New Vol, Vol.12, No. 43, pp. 251-278. [In Persian].
  44. Shahabian, Pouyan & Rahgozar, Erfan (2012) The link between the creative environment or the city, Manzar Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 19, pp. 67-73. [In Persian].
  45. Zarrabi, Asghar., & Mousavi, Mir Najaf., & Kashkoli, Ali Baqer. (2014) A Study of the Feasibility of a Creative City, Comparative comparison between indicators of sustainable urban development and criteria for creating a creative city, geography and urban space development, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 1-17. [In Persian].
  46. Sheriff, Mohsen., Rajaei, Seyed Abbas., & Fotouhi Mehrabani, Baqer. (2016) An Analysis of the Creativity of the Metropolis of Iran in the Creative City Index, Geographical Research in Urban Planning, Vol.4, No. 4, pp. 612-587. [In Persian].