Designing a coastal and marine tourism development model based on axial promotion (Case study: Arvand Free Trade-Industrial Zone)

Successful tourism can be likened to a living ecosystem that requires dynamic coordination with its surrounding environment for survival and growth. The tourism environment is constantly affected by economic, social, and cultural changes. Creating balance and coordination between influential factors is a complex matter and requires flexibility and dynamism in development planning. This allows the tourism industry to maintain its sustainable capabilities over time and identify and exploit new opportunities. Therefore, the present study has designed a coastal and marine tourism development model based on promotion in the Arvand Free Zone. This research was conducted based on a qualitative analysis approach and a theme analysis strategy; meaning that in-depth and semi-structured interviews were used to design the model. In the first stage, with the aim of developing a local model for coastal and marine tourism development based on promotion, interviews were conducted with 15 experts in this field (including senior managers of the Arvand Free Zone and university professors in the relevant field) and the resulting data were examined using thematic analysis. After analyzing the qualitative data and using exploratory factor analysis, 39 descriptive codes were identified and four overarching themes were identified as the main themes of coastal and marine tourism development. These themes include governance, organizational, environmental, and individual factors in the region, which were confirmed based on quantitative methods of validity and reliability of the findings. As a result, policymakers should be aware of the importance of these factors and consider the need to pay more attention to these themes in order to achieve economic benefits and avoid a one-dimensional economy.