Journal of Urban Economics and Management

Nowadays, tourism, as a new-fledgling industry, has a lot of economic, social, and cultural effects. In this regard, residential areas, as important centers for economy, culture, service, etc. are of great importance for tourism-related activities. In order to achieve the objectives for sustainable development in tourism, considering its social, cultural, economic, environmental, and natural dimensions, a multilateral systemic analysis seems indispensable. The city of Maraqeh, due to natural, historical, and cultural potentialities, enjoys a high capacity and, through proper planning and identifying advantages and detecting its tourism limitations, attaining a sustainable development is not far to reach. The current article aims at planning strategies for the development of tourism industry in Maraqeh to attain sustainable development. The research method was analytic-descriptive and the data were collected through library sources, document, and field studies. To analyze data based on theoretical principles and field research, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats have been determined and strategies have been offered. The results show that the city of Maraqeh enjoys high potentials in tourism both history- and culture-wise and through strategies to develop tourism which requires a comprehensive planning to redefine SWOT, the development of tourism industry in this city is to come.

The spatial structure of a city is the result of current spatial processes in a city and in a long run, has close relationship with the efficiency of urban development. Such a concept has a significant effect on the quality of competitiveness, livability, desirability, and the environmental invulnerability of the cities. In this regard, formulating a sustainable spatial structure depends on such factors as the justifiability of functions mixing, providing ease of transfer and access, justifiability of public transport and the extent of adaptation and flexibility, environmental quality, and observing the distance between business and residential centers, etc. The applied study, aiming at identifying and assessing the features of the spatial structure of the city of Sari, with a strategic approach, has been conducted in the framework of the concept of sustainable development in 2012. The research method was descriptive-analytical and the required data were collected via a questionnaire. In line with the purposes of the study through SWOT technique, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the urban spatial structure have been analyzed, and, then, to achieve a sustainable spatial structure, appropriate policies and strategies have been offered. Experiential analysis in the case study indicates that the current spatial structure of the city of Sari does not comply with sustainability indexes.

The current article aims at qualitatively evaluating of the indexes for the plans for tourism development management in Firouzkouh. The data were collected through surveys and evaluated descriptively-analytically. Research population was the tourists traveling to Firouzkouh for leisure and visits from among whom 278 tourists were selected via Cochran formula. To evaluate indexes, a questionnaire, comprising 16 close-ended and 3 open-ended multiple choice items, was developed wherein the factors contributing to attracting tourists were considered. SWOT model was used to evaluate opportunities and strengths as well as internal weaknesses and external threats in Firouzkouh.Through SWOT model and via hypotheses, a question was posed, “what are tourism plans in Firouzkouh and what effects do they have on Firouzkouh tourism development?” The results indicated that organizing different festivals in Firouzkouh may be one of effective factors in tourism development plans, counts to be among the strengths of the very region. Geographical location of Firouzkouh has received considerable attention in qualitative evaluation of the indexes and the plans for tourism development, the other strength of the region. Building camps alongside the mineral waters would be a successful plan in developing the tourism of the city which can be a strategy and an opportunity for overcoming the weaknesses in tourism. Identifying the exact location of natural and historical sites are not only among the indexes contributing to the development of the tourism in the region but also are among the strategy and opportunities for minimizing the threats and applying the strengths in the tourism of Firouzkouh.

Ecotourism, as a modern phenomenon, with a tourism purpose behind, involves observation of and enjoying nature as well as natural and cultural phenomena and landscapes and it can be referred to as one of the new sources of income to serve the purpose of sustainable development. Hence, identifying the capabilities and the methods of developing ecotourism is of great importance in various geographic regions. To this end, the current research investigates into the feasibility of developing ecotourism in the city of Ramsar. The required data were collected via utilizing library research and English references as well as via referring to the related literature and have been analyzed through SWOT-FANP and FUZZY Techniques. The results help identifying existing potentials and weaknesses in the city of Ramsar and showing the fact that what minimizes tourism attraction barriers and maximizes domestic and foreign investors in line with economic development are primarily qualitative and quantitative enhancement of welfare and service facilities provided concerning the location of the city in the context of the nature and then exploiting all potentials of the city, including historical, natural and etc. Also, suggestions will be made improving ecotourism in the very region.

The production of gold ornaments and artifacts is a local and national industry. Isfahan is one of the major metropolises which it has the first rank of gold industry, jewelry and silver in Iran. Obtained value added in this industry is not in a good position than other industries in Isfahan, however. Thus, more attention to this valuable industry will result in more development and growth and economic progress in Isfahan as well. Hence, the researcher tried to present an integrated framework in order to develop appropriate strategies in this metropolis which will help the growth and survival of the industry. For presenting a comprehensive framework strategy, SWOT has been used for determining the factors in this study. Major factors have been selected by using fuzzy linguistic variables and multi criteria decision making method. Using these factors, necessary conditions for enhancing value added obtained from this industry may be enhanced and more share of global markets will be gained.

Currently, old textures are one of the main problems in many cities and even villages in our country. The specific feature of these textures makes it necessary to be considered from different aspects. This study is trying to find strategies to improve and organize old texture in the Shahidgah neighborhood of Ardabil. It also aims to plan and design in accordance with the existing status and consistent with strategic priorities. In this regard, using review of documents and field surveys, existing status of the neighborhood were evaluated using SWOT analysis and planning strategies. Continuing with the quantitative models used, organizing strategies are prioritized. Finally, five design alternatives presented in accordance with texture requirements. Findings indicate that the organizing of the studied area should adopt a systematic approach for 4 dimensions of physical, economic, social and environmental interventions to deal with. The preferred alternative has tried to organize and remove the ruined buildings in the middle of the area, a closeness be created and the central space is used to create a neighborhood center.

New theories in empowerment have been focused on the role of spontaneous solutions of suburbanites in the recent years. One of the scientific strategies that inhabitants of informal settlements use for solving the problems of marginalization is to choose informal economy and spontaneous jobs. This research has descriptive-analytical approach emphasizing on questionnaire in order to study the role of such occupations as a solution arisen from these societies in order to relieve the issue of informal settlement among informal habitats of Hesaramir in Pakdasht. Cochran Formula was used to determine sample size. 25303 people of total population of Hesaramir were considered as a statistical population; therefore, 378 people were selected. SWOT technique indicated that development of spontaneous jobs in the informal settlements of Hesaramir of Pakdasht has very high strengths (3.33 scores in terms of internal factors and 3.34 scores in terms of external factors). One sample t tests and chi-square were used to analyze the questionnaires. Chi-square test results showed that there is a significant relationship between the gender of the studied people and tendency to spontaneous jobs with the probability of 95%. T and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests were used to show the impact of spontaneous jobs on economic recovery. The results of Kolmogorov-Smirnov test indicate that tendency to such jobs has leaded to the improvement of economic situation. T-test indicates the significance level less than 0.05 showing the impact of these jobs on the improvement of economic situation.

Today, tourism industry, as a dynamic industry, has devoted an important part of production activities in the world by its development-oriented features. Hence its development in a country requires factors such as an appropriate strategy, planning and efficient management. In this paper, the status of tourism industry in Zanjan Province has been evaluated using SWOT technique and Input-Output table. The use of expert judgment of “Delphi” is used so that the judgment of the expert group a list of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) influencing the approach taken and the quantification was carried out .Methods of data collection and data analysis are applied and descriptive-analytical. According to the research findings, Zanjan province can become one of the big tourism hubs in the country because of its special geographical location and being between two industrial hubs of Tehran and East. Azerbaijan Provinces. Its strategy is defensive one, and strategies were proposed based on QSPM matrix at the end. Based on research findings in Zanjan province, tourism industry and its related sectors, in terms of linking with other sectors of the economy, can be considered as leading sectors in the economy of Zanjan Province. Therefore, this industry can boost the whole economy of Zanjan by supplying tourism services, demand for enjoying them, and producing tourism goods in other sectors. With regard to these potentials, tourism should be placed on the priority of the province planners in order to exploit them in line with the economy of this province.

 Planning is researchers’ main concern in recent years to enhance environmental standards in metropolises and one of the pillars to achieve to sustainable development. One of the presented strategies to improve environment quality in urban areas is architecture and constructing consistent with the environment. In addition to economic function in saving energy resources, this idea has environmentally favorable impacts. In this research, it has been tried to specify strategic location of construction development consistent with the environment (green buildings) in Tehran Municipality by using SWOT analysis. According the results, strategic location in relation with construction development consistent with the environment in Tehran Municipality- district 1 is conservative; therefore, seven strategies were proposed in order to eliminate current weaknesses by using opportunities. The most important managerial strategies for construction development consistent with the environment include absorbing international investments from actively environmental bodies in order to reduce primary costs, encouraging investors in order to increase public willingness to invest, and necessity to construct green buildings by governmental bodies (banks) to motivate society.

In the past two decades, economic globalization has changed many human life arenas in different areas of the world. In this regard, metropolises, affected by manifestations of globalization, create a new form of diplomacy, called as urban diplomacy, by promoting their economic status, infrastructures, etc. It has been tried in this paper to explain and analyze the relationship between economic globalization and urban diplomacy by using quantitative-analytical SWOT model, qualitative method of brainstorming to present a systematic image of strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities of economic globalization effects on urban diplomacy of Tehran Metropolis and its diplomacy structure facing with manifestations of economic globalization. The methodology is descriptive-analytical by using library resources and SWOT analytical model by weighting indexes through brainstorming method with 30 economics and diplomacy experts to explain the relationship between economic globalization and urban diplomacy, and the role of Tehran Metropolis in this arena. Research findings indicated that a type of globalization entitled globalization-localization model has better fitness for Tehran Metropolis. This model is consistent with globalization necessities and urban diplomacy aspects of Tehran Metropolis with local conditions in order to balance localization with globalization.