Identifying and Prioritizing Cultural Barriers to Community-Based Tourism in Iran

Abstract

AbstractCommunity-based tourism is an approach to achieving sustainable tourism that focuses on community productivity. Being productive in the context of a society in the field of community-based tourism requires active participation, which is greatly influenced by the cultural atmosphere of the society. For this purpose, the present study has identified and prioritized the cultural challenges of tourism stakeholder participation in Iran. Initially, nine major challenges were extracted based on domestic and foreign literature and localized and prioritized using the SWARA method based on the integration of the opinions of seven tourism, urban, and academic affairs experts. Structural relationships between challenges were performed using interpretive structural modeling, in which challenges were balanced at five levels. The DEMATEL method was used to confirm the results. According to the findings of the present study, among the cultural challenges of community-based tourism, the inefficiency of mass media and lack of sense of belonging had the most impact and lack of trust and limited interactions, ambiguity, and indifference of individuals had the most interaction with other challenges, respectively. IntroductionAchieving comprehensive and sustainable development is the main concern of most governments today. Community-based tourism (CBT) in its original form links community development strategies and sustainability in tourism activities. CBT is the interaction between different cultures in a single space and the benefit of all individuals from the benefits that are required, which requires principled management to take into account the preferences of all individuals. CBT must contribute to the independence of the society through comprehensive sustainable development. Local culture should be emphasized in the development of the community and at the grassroots level. The local cultural context should be considered and used as a starting point for community development projects. As tourism is a service and human-centered industry, the constructive role of the people for development should not be overlooked. People should be involved in the development of this industry and decisions and policies to participate in the implementation of programs and be well acquainted with the problems, obstacles, and benefits of this industry. Also because participation is greatly influenced by the cultural atmosphere of a community; therefore, the present study identifies and prioritizes cultural barriers affecting community-based tourism.Given the importance of community participation in the tourism industry, cultural barriers affecting the participation of tourism stakeholders have been identified. Using the interpretive structural modeling technique, a model of their internal relationships has been provided. This model is an appropriate approach in creating a hierarchical structure of factors, based on the degree of impact and effectiveness of each obstacle to form a comprehensive and clear view of key obstacles and how they relate to each other. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to answer the following three research questions: 1) what are the cultural barriers affecting community-based tourism? 2) What are the priorities for the implementation of these criteria from the perspective of experts? 3) What are the causal relations of cultural barriers to community-based tourism? The study mentions the research method and findings, conclusions, and suggestions for future studies. The results of this study can be used by policymakers to introduce more systematic solutions to remove cultural barriers to community-based tourism and to help communities and entrepreneurs overcome the challenges of sustainable development. Materials and MethodsThe present study is applied and descriptive survey in terms of research orientation and data collection, respectively. At first, using domestic and foreign literature, nine of the most important cultural barriers of stakeholder participation in tourism were identified and then weighed by seven experts active in the field of tourism and urban management using the SWARA method. The feature of the researchers in the present study was to use the information of experts based on their deep knowledge of the relevant field and their relative knowledge of the sub-dimensions of the subject. After prioritizing the barriers, using the ISM method, a model of the internal relationships of the barriers with each other was prepared and DEMATEL software was used to confirm the model. Discussion of ResultsPrioritized barriers in the interpretive structural sector were aligned at five levels, with the polarization of the social environment at the first level and the inefficiency of the mass media at the fifth level. Findings in the DEMATEL section showed that barriers to mass media inefficiency, lack of sense of belonging, limited cultural capacity with the highest (D-R), respectively, were identified as the most influential factors, and barriers to distrust and limited interaction, ambiguity and apathy, and lack of honesty of members with the highest (D + R), respectively, had the most interaction. ConclusionsIn this study, by reviewing the research literature and using the opinions of experts, cultural barriers to community-based tourism were identified and prioritized. According to the findings of Dematel causal analysis, barriers to mass media inefficiency, lack of sense of belonging, limited cultural capacity, and differences in value and norm were identified as effective barriers.Due to the high impact of mass media on community participation, future studies could examine how the media works to evoke a sense of belonging in communities and public participation in tourism procurement, how media policies, by eliminating the polar atmosphere in communities, motivate participation in joint programs between the government and the nation, and basically how to create a culture of participation and innovation in the development of participatory tourism destinations. Keywords: Community-Based Tourism, Cultural Barriers to Participation, Interpretive Structural Modeling, SWARA, Iran. References- Adi, T. J. W., & Musbah, A. (2017). The Cultural Differences Influences on Knowledge Sharing Activities in Construction Project Collaboration. 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Keywords

• community-based tourism
• cultural barriers to participation
• interpretive structural modeling
• swara
• iran