Tourism, government and political economy in Iran

Subject Areas : Urban and Regional Planning Studies

heidar lotfi ¹ , naser soltani ² , naser eghbali ³

1 - استادیار گروه جغرافیا، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد گرمسار
2 - دانش آموخته دکترای جغرافیای سیاسی دانشگاه تهران
3 - استادیار گروه جغرافیا دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد تهران مرکز

Received: 2008-05-23 Accepted : 2009-03-15 Published : 2009-02-19

Keywords: Tourism, Political Economy, Government,

Abstract :

The role and position of government in tourism industry is undeniable and can not be replaced by any other parameters such as individuals, groups and ultra-national actors and the exact representation of  governmental interference in tourism industry can be found in all developed and less developed countries, but being successful in this field needs balancing performances between governmental section in one side and  private sections and other actors such as institutions and international organizations in other side and this is a very  complicated  and vulnerable strategy which needs the realization of  presuppositions such as formation and development  of  nation-state process, and to some how to increase  the trust among government and society, lack of rent economy and the governmental willing-lessens toward legitimating. In this study we have tried to indicate the reasons for governmental movement  from policy-making procedures toward  the field of operative policy-making and charging difficulties in lower levels, by the use of  effective parameters in Iran’s political economy such as the imperfect procedures of state formation ,or the bourgeoisie historical infirmity ,oil-dependent economy and the formation and development of informal economy  and popularization of  them on tourism industry .For this mean and to ease the understanding of deep governmental presence in tourism industry we have used the dependency factors and legal properties  of places and the centers mostly referred to by tourist and  the results of such survey demonstrated that the most of  aforementioned centers, were depended to the institutions and the governmental ministries and although  the private sections had quantity suitable places, but it seems that the lack of necessary backgrounds for the emersion of  a contesting bazaar caused difficulty for them.