Province Classification in Terms of Tourist Attractions

Abstract

Nowadays, tourism is one of the major constituents and it is considered as one of the main economic sources and an affecting factor on economic development of human societies. Tourism expansion is also affected on foreign exchange and national income, employment and other macroeconomic indicators. According to the importance of this subject and the role of tourism in economic development, this study first tries to evaluate and prioritize 16 provinces of Iran in terms of the types of tourism attractions and some of the economic growth indices using TOPSIS technique and then it tries to study the relationship between tourism attractions and economic growth indices using multivariable regression. Results indicate that Fars, Tehran and Khorasan Razavi provinces have the highest ratings in terms of tourist attractions . And man-made attractions effect on economic development more than natural and historical attractions