The Effect of Environmental Advertising on the Brand of the Creative City of Rasht

A B S T R A C T
In today's world, cities must be recognized as creative places to attract tourists. In this regard, gastronomy plays a vital role as a key factor in the competitiveness of tourist destinations. Culinary tourism is a good opportunity to promote and strengthen specific tourist destinations. As a creative food city, Rasht can play an important role in attracting more tourists due to its quantitative and qualitative food diversity. In the meantime, environmental advertising can play a very important role in the development of food tourism in Rasht city and better recognition of the Rasht Creative Food City brand. In this regard, the main goal of this research is to provide an analysis of the impact of environmental advertising on Rasht Creative Food City brand. The research method is quantitative, and the sample examined is 400 tourists who have traveled to Rasht city at least once. Data analysis in SPSS and PLS software and using binomial and Friedman tests. The results indicate that according to the opinion of tourists, the "Brand Loyalty" index has the highest rank, and the "Brand Awareness" index has the lowest rank. On the other hand, the correlation coefficient of the indicators of environmental advertising with the indicators related to tourists has been reported as 0.714. This number shows a strong correlation coefficient between the environmental advertising indicators and tourist indicators. In other words, paying more attention to environmental advertising indicators will increase the number of tourists in Rasht. In fact, environmental advertising can play an essential role in improving "brand awareness" and "brand preference" in the minds of tourists and, finally, "brand loyalty.".
Extended Abstract
Introduction
During the nineties, most cities in the northern part of the world wanted to become "smart" and "technological" cities, while the 21st century is the turn of "creative" and "cultural" cities. Food tourism is a great opportunity to promote and enhance specific tourist destinations, especially as tourists are more aware of the food available in their chosen destination. The main purpose of some tourists is to visit a particular restaurant or to experience local cuisine in general. For many others, the food quality is an important part of the tourist experience. Destinations should keep this in mind when developing their long-term plans for the local tourism industry. Rasht, the capital of Gilan province, is located near the Caspian Sea and has natural, historical, and cultural attractions. This city has a good position in terms of food tourism because Rasht has a good amount of food diversity in terms of quantity and quality. In fact, due to its variety of food, this city can play an essential role in attracting more tourists and increasing tourism activities as well as job creation. On the other hand, considering its impact compared to other types of advertising, environmental advertising can play a very important role in improving brand awareness and preference in the minds of tourists and, ultimately, brand loyalty. Therefore, this research aims to measure the impact of environmental advertising on the development of tourism in the creative city of Rasht.
 
Methodology
Considering the nature and method of answering the descriptive-quantitative research problems, this research is considered practical in terms of the type of goal. In this research, information has been collected through surveys and documents. The research collection tool is a library and a questionnaire with 9 indicators and 77 items. Data was collected by distributing a questionnaire among tourists who have traveled to Rasht city at least once. In order to distribute the questionnaire among tourists, 384 people have been estimated using Cochran's formula due to the unknown population of tourists. Also, SPSS and PLS software and Binomial and Friedman have been used to analyze the status of the Rasht Creative Food City brand using environmental advertising.
 
Results and discussion
According to these results, it can be said that most of the tourists have a positive view of the influence of "Brand," "Logo," "Color," and "Brand Loyalty" indicators on the brand of Rasht Creative Food City and most of them believe that paying attention to these indicators in The city of Rasht is more than the average (number 3). Concerning the brand index, it should be said that the brand adds dimensions to the products and services to distinguish the products and services produced to meet the needs of other products and services. These distinctions can have a logical, tangible, or intangible function. According to the result, 71% of the respondents were aware of the Rasht creative food brand to a greater extent than the average. A logo is a graphic element of signs or labels set with a special style of letters or fonts arranged specially and legibly. A suitable design for a logo plays a big role in the brand appeal and, ultimately, brand preference. The findings show that 56% of tourists did not know about the logo of the creative city of Rasht and gave it a lower-than-average rating. Color is also considered one of the most important visual aspects of environmental advertising, and its harmony and proportion with the message's content multiplies the advertising's effectiveness. Color, especially in environmental advertising, is considered a significant factor in attracting attention, conveying the message, and remembering the message, which can lead to the improvement of brand awareness and preference in the minds of tourists. According to the result of the two-sentence test, it can be seen that 57% of tourists reacted positively to the color of environmental advertisements and paid attention to them. Finally, 75% of tourists are loyal to the tourist destination of the creative city of Rasht. It can be said that loyalty in tourism research is known as loyalty to a destination. It creates positive feelings and attitudes in tourists, encouraging them to visit a specific destination repeatedly. Also, the correlation coefficient of the environmental advertising indicators with those related to tourists has been reported as 0.714. This number is in the range of 0.6-0.8. Therefore, this coefficient indicates a strong correlation between the indicators of environmental advertising and the indicators related to tourists. In other words, paying more attention to environmental advertising indicators will increase the number of tourists.
 
Conclusion
Although several years have passed since Rasht's creative food city brand was registered with UNESCO, this city has not displayed a proper image of itself as it should. One of the important factors in creating such an image is the use of appropriate "environmental advertising" to identify this brand to tourists. Because people often unconsciously pay attention to environmental advertisements in open spaces, and in the next step, they aim to interpret the message presented by such advertisements. In fact, environmental advertisements, especially unconventional advertisements, are a new direction in communication strategies. Therefore, new ideas should be used concerning the creative strategies of environmental advertising in the open space to significantly impact the sustainability of the creative food city brand in the minds of tourists. This issue requires the city administration's attention to create the necessary infrastructure. City management should provide the necessary space for the growth of startups in order to create effective environmental advertisements for the brand of this city. Also, provide appropriate financial support and facilities for the creative class. On the other hand, city management should create effective communication between academicians and the scientific community with the creative class to provide a proper link between thought and action and provide the best possible brand of Rasht Creative Food city to tourists.
 
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.