Investigating Barriers to the Development of Senior Tourism Activities (Case Study of Qom City)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Department of Urban Planning, ،faculty of Art and Architecture ، University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran

2 Master in urban planning, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Senior tourism is receiving a lot of attention due to its capabilities and competitive advantages. Qom city is the second largest pilgrimage center in the country in national level, a potential market that can use its competitive advantage in attracting senior tourists by removing barriers of seniors’ travel.

The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for identifying the direct and indirect impacts of barriers affecting the development of senior tourism in Qom city. The barriers to senior tourism development are classified into four main sectors of economic, social and cultural, managerial and organizational, government attitudes. This research is an applied research and the method is descriptive-analytical. Survey and library methods were used for data collection. The statistical population of the study consists of senior tourists and experts in tourism.

Data analysis was performed using SPSS software. The results indicated that four factors have a positive effect on the lack of development of senior tourism. The results of T-test also showed that all barriers were higher than the criterion level at the significant level of 0.05 and the highest mean is allocated to economic barriers (5.17) and lowest mean to managerial and organizational barriers (2.10). The most influential factor on the lack of development of senior tourism is economic barriers (with beta coefficient of 0.643) which explains 52% of the variance of senior tourism lack of development. The Tolerance coefficient of 0.923 also indicates that economic barriers are strong predictor and criterion.

Highlights

Senior tourism is receiving a lot of attention due to its capabilities and competitive advantages. Qom city is the second largest pilgrimage center in the country in national level, a potential market that can use its competitive advantage in attracting senior tourists by removing barriers of seniors’ travel

The purpose of this study is to provide a framework for identifying the direct and indirect impacts of barriers affecting the development of senior tourism in Qom city. The barriers to senior tourism development are classified into four main sectors of economic, social and cultural, managerial and organizational, government attitudes. This research is an applied research and the method is descriptive-analytical. Survey and library methods were used for data collection. The statistical population of the study consists of senior tourists and experts in tourism.

Data analysis was performed using SPSS software. The results indicated that four factors have a positive effect on the lack of development of senior tourism. The results of T-test also showed that all barriers were higher than the criterion level at the significant level of 0.05 and the highest mean is allocated to economic barriers (5.17) and lowest mean to managerial and organizational barriers (2.10). The most influential factor on the lack of development of senior tourism is economic barriers (with beta coefficient of 0.643) which explains 52% of the variance of senior tourism lack of development. The Tolerance coefficient of 0.923 also indicates that economic barriers are strong predictor and criterion.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Geography and Planning
Volume 28, Issue 87
March 2024
Pages 421-401

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