Document Type : Research Paper
Abstract
Considering tourists’ viewpoints and motives for traveling to a given tourism destination is very important in terms of its significance on tourism developmental planning and marketing. Influenced by their motives, tourists have different expectations of travel products; so their motives are very significant in determining developmental strategies and also in making the planners and policy makers aware of the major tourism destinations and their characteristics. Accordingly, the present study aimed to identify the tourists’ motives in order to attain a suitable pattern for marketing and providing developmental strategies for the products in Mahallat, Iran. With respect to the importance of effective factors in tourists’ motives, the impact of gender and income were considered. To test the hypothesis, the results of 185 questionnaires were analyzed through factor analysis, t-test, and ANOVA. The results of the analyses indicated that tourists’ motives can be classified into four categories - that accounted for 58.1% of the total variance. Examining the presumed concepts of the first factor (tranquility-recreation) by 15.8% of the total variance suggested tourists’ inclination for spiritual peace, being away from the worries of work and life, visiting the family and friends, enjoying the hobbies and exciting entertainments and the weather in Mahallat. Therefore, with these factors in mind, planning tourism activities must be based on the development of entertainment facilities. The second factor is the "ecotourism" accounted for 15.54% of the total variance. In this case, the tourists’ inclination to use the recreational space of Sarcheshmeh Park was to see and enjoy the natural scenery, visiting the flowers and plants, and having fun. In brief, these two factors represent a perspective of the attitudes of the respondents that is the most common one among them. In other words, most tourists visit Mahallat with recreation and ecotourism motives. In this regard, the infrastructure and facilities planning activities should focus more on these two motives. The third and fourth factors presumed as "historic - investigatory" and "pilgrimage - culture" respectively, accounted for 13.86% and 12.88% of the total variance. The mean of tourists’ viewpoints in response to the items related to the above mentioned factors revealed the importance of more consideration and planning in relevant areas with these motives. Among these, peace-recreation factor won the highest percentage of variance. Hypothesis test results also indicated significant difference between income and tourist motivation. Regarding to the fact that Mahallat has numerous ancient historical works and arts related to various historical periods, it needs the development of required tourism infrastructure.
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