Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1
department of geography
2
Faculty member
Abstract
Nowadays, tourism industry has led to great investment booms in the infrastructures which improve the conditions for native people’s life, and they lead to employment and currency import for the citizens and urban management organizations such as municipalities and in this way, it is an additional income resource besides their current income. It can lead to the citizens’ economic ability for citizens and responsible organizations. Therefore, regarding this fact, this research is aimed at investigating the effects of tourism on urban economy and sustainability of municipalities’ income. The research population includes the citizens and employees of municipality of Babak City and by using Cochran’s formula, 265 people were selected as the sample. Also, pilot test was done for obtaining validity coefficient of the questionnaire and confidence coefficient of Cronbach’s alpha was obtained as 0/83 which suggests that the research tool has been appropriate. For analyzing data, inferential statistics including (one-sample T test, cluster analysis, contingency table, and Chi-square test of homogeneity) were used. The results of one sample T tests and Chi-square test of homogeneity based on the contingency table show that tourism has been able to cause empowerment and sustainability of urban economy in Babak city. Also, according to the findings, it was proved that the confidence level of 99%, there is a positive and significant relationship between tourism, as the independent variable of research, and sustainability of municipalities’ and citizens’ income in Babak city.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Tourism is now one of the world’s largest industries and one of its fastest growing economic sectors. For many countries tourism is seen as a main instrument for regional development, as it stimulates new economic activities. Tourism may have a positive economic impact on the balance of payments, on employment, on gross income and production, but it may also have negative effects, particularly on the environment. The development of tourism in all areas, both nationally and regionally and internationally regarded government planners and private companies are located. Community awareness of the tourism is very appropriate and significant source of foreign exchange incomes in the economy of a country show Tourism is a very broad concept in many aspects of economic, social and cultural rights have and to be regarded as an industry.Today, tourism has become one of the most important sources of employment in societies. On one hand, the industry has created and promoted large-scale investment in those infrastructures that improve the living conditions of local people, and on the other hand, through employment and currency exchange for citizens and trusted urban management organizations such as municipalities are a source of revenue in addition to their current incomes, which can provide economic empowerment to citizens and trustee organizations. In the last two centuries, the Instability of human societies and its harmful consequences were as a function of population variables, per capita and consumption pattern and have emphasized more on the principle of sustainability that way, over the past two decades; with the advent of environmental waste and the decline in the standard of living, especially in urban communities, the Sustainable Development Approach has been highlighted by the United Nations as the most important issue of the last decade of the 20th century. Sustainable development as an important branch of this concept is a broad and complex phenomenon that focuses on the growth and development of cities, economic, social, demographic, environmental and ecological factors. Shahr-e Babak is one of the most important tourist areas of historical Kerman province. It is located on the south-north direction of Iran and west of Kerman province.
Methodology
The dominant approach for this applied-developmental research is a descriptive-analytical method whose data is provided through library resources including (retrieval, internet) and survey (questionnaire, interview). The statistical population of the study includes citizens and municipal employees of Shahr-e Babak. Based on the Cochran's formula, the number of required households was estimated to 265 household which were randomly selected from among citizens and municipal staff. In the following study, in order to measure the level of study area of economic sustainability index of tourism in the region, thirty indices were selected and evaluated at three levels of strong, moderate and weak.
Discussion and Conclusion
In this study, three components and 26 items of economic sustainability were used. The results show that the highest age range of the respondents was 40 to 50 years. From 265 respondents; 95.2 percent were male and 4.8 percent were female. The average household size of these people is equal to 3/9 people. The results of the study also show that the average income per household was 14/173/000 tomans per year.
Conclusion
In the modern globalized world, tourism is recognised as one of the largest, fastest growing and dynamic economic sectors attracting external economic activities. So, Tourism, as a world-wide phenomenon, touches the highest and deepest aspirations of all people and it is also an important element of socio-economic and political development in many countries. Governments, other public authorities, public and private decision-makers whose activities are related to tourism, and tourists themselves, consider it a priority to protect and reinforce the human dignity of both local community and tourists. Because of this all these agents have registered a growing concern in sustainability as a guiding principle to allow the integration of economic development with environmental and social aspects within tourism policy and strategy. In this study, after compiling economic sustainability indices, single sample T test was used to measure the sustainability of these indices. The results of this test showed that the study area is classified into 19 indices at a sustainable level, 4 indices at a somewhat stable level and 3 indices at an unsustainable level. In order to explain the effects of tourism industry on economic sustainability in the city of Shahr-e Babak, the 26 components of economic sustainability were divided into three categories: weak, medium and strong based on cluster analysis. They were tested by Chi-square test based on the agreement table. The results show that there is a statistically significant difference between the dependent variable; the degree of economic sustainability and the independent variable which increases with the increase of tourism and tourism activities. It affects the income and sustainability of the citizenship and municipal economy of the city.
Tourism can play on important role in the economic development of Babak city. Municipality of this city needs to create an enabling environment for small business to operate in by the promotion and development of Tourism Products. The industry could significantly contribute to the employment of youth and development of Handicrafts which are two of the major problems in babak city. Finally, the research identified many benefits of tourism for development of babak city such as economic growth, job creation and a more diverse local economy. In this regard, tourism strategy needs to consist of various components such as provision of training, provision of access to funding, and supply of grants and incentives to support local small business development and local supply.
Keywords
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