Analyzing Tourism Nation Branding and Tourism Brand Management of Iran in the Large-Scale and Basic Policies of Islamic Republic of Iran

• Published in: Muṭālaʻāt-i mudīrīyat-i gardishgarī (Online) Vol. 16; no. 56; pp. 45 - 82
• Main Authors: Mehdi Karoubi, Fatemeh Yavari Gohar, seyed mojtaba mahmoudzadeh, Nasim Mohammadian Mahmoudjigh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Persian
• Published: Allameh Tabataba'i University Press 01.12.2021
• Subjects: destination branding; management of tourism nation branding; thematic analysis; tourism nation branding; tourism policy-making
• ISSN: 2322-3294; 2476-597X
• DOI: 10.22054/tms.2021.63380.2617

In recent years, some countries and destinations have used brands to describe themselves, in a way that "tourism nation branding" has become one of the main focuses of tourism marketing studies. On the other hand, tourism development depends more on tourism policy-making than the known underlying factors, which imply the determination of governments to develop this industry, and it reflects in high-scale documents and laws as well as in monitoring their proper implementation. This study analyzes the branding approach in macro policies of tourism in Iran. The research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative. After reviewing the research background, tourism nation branding policies were extracted from the content of the selected documents by thematic analysis. Then 243 primary codes were categorized into 62 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and four global themes entitled (1)Nation tourism branding, (2)Components, (3)Effects, and (4)Factors affecting it. Finally, the thematic network was drawn, and the results were interpreted. According to the findings, not only the specialized indicators of tourism nation branding but also the primary indicators of policy-making have been ignored. At the top of them are a lack of systematization, a lack of stability and integrity, and a lack of guidance on implementing decisions.IntroductionIt seems that an essential part of the challenge of not paying attention to tourism branding can be found in macro tourism policies and policy-makers' lack of attention to integrating tourism development and marketing measures through branding. Therefore, the present study is designed in response to this question of whether the branding approach can be discovered in macro tourism policies? So we can explain the situation of tourism branding in the macro perspectives of the country to identify gaps and fundamental shortcomings of the Iranian policy system in this field.In addition, a comparison of credible reports related to the national brand with tourism reports (before the Covid-19 epidemic) shows that 7 out of the top 10 countries in the NBI index presented in 2019 were among the top tourist destinations in the world (in terms of tourist attraction and income) in the same year, which was published in the report of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) entitled Tourism Highlights 2020.Materials and MethodsThe present study aimed to analyze the policies of different parts of the tourism nation branding in basic and large-scale documents, using thematic analysis. Then, the themes related to tourism branding were extracted. For this purpose, the basic (specific to tourism) and large-scale (macro) laws, documents, programs, and regulations of the Islamic Republic of Iran related to the field of tourism were identified (21 documents). Considering that the Iranian tourism industry has been influenced by the political institution more than anything else, the documents after the Islamic Revolution of Iran have been introduced and examined in this study. Then, based on the Attride-Stirling method, the coding was performed to identify basic themes (codes and points of the text), organizing themes (combining and summarizing basic themes), and global themes (governing the whole text) to form a thematic network. This research is descriptive-analytical and qualitative (in terms of the nature of the data).Discussion and ResultsThe first step- parsing the text: first, the content of the documents was studied independently by the researchers, and the irrelevant or unuseful information was removed. Then, by separating the useful and related points, for example, the related content to tourism, branding, and its dimensions (explicitly or implicitly), the coding process began, and the basic themes were identified based on the initial codes.The second step- interpreting the text and drawing the thematic network: In the next step, 243 initial codes were identified after reviewing the basic themes and ensuring the method of classification, naming, and adapting them to the original codes. Then, the primary codes were categorized into 62 basic themes, 21 organizing themes, and four global themes entitled (1) Nation tourism branding, (2) Components, (3) Effects, and (4) Factors affecting it. Finally, the thematic network was drawn, and the results were interpreted.ConclusionsAs confirmed in the present study, despite the importance of the tourism industry as an economic sector in the world, tourism nation branding has received little attention from policy-makers and the planning system in Iran. So that, only designing a random logo and slogan has been considered. Even designing and implementing a promotional program (albeit short-term) did not matter much for the same logo. In this regard, contrary to the consensus of researchers on the process of place branding and destinations branding, such an approach can not be traced in the selected documents, which shows the lack of importance of tourism branding in the field of public policy and tourism policy. The findings of this study are in line with the research literature. However, there are many obstacles along the way. According to the findings, it seems that given the current situation and the incomprehensible position of tourism nation branding in public policy, Iran is not currently ready to develop a purposeful and coherent tourism nation brand in the long run.