10.57647/ijps.2025.1502.09

Challenges, Drivers and Key Factors Affecting Iranian Tourism from the Perspective of International Relations

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  • Morteza Fallahnzhad1,
  • Afshin Zargar*1,
  • Fakhreddin Soltany1,
  1. Department of International Relations, Ka. C. , Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

Received: 2025-03-20

Revised: 2025-04-24

Accepted: 2025-06-12

Published in Issue 2025-07-05

Copyright (c) 2025 Morteza Fallahnzhad, Dr. Afshin Zargar, Dr. Fakhreddin Soltany (Author)

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Fallahnzhad, M., Zargar, A., & Soltany, F. (2025). Challenges, Drivers and Key Factors Affecting Iranian Tourism from the Perspective of International Relations. International Journal of Political Science, 15(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.57647/ijps.2025.1502.09
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Abstract

Today, one of the important economic sectors is the tourism sector. Iran, as a country with high tourism potential, faces various challenges. The decline in international relations and political-economic sanctions can be considered the most important challenges of Iran’s foreign tourism sector. Accordingly, the main goal of this research is to identify the existing challenges, drivers, and key factors of Iran’s tourism in terms of international relations. The present study is descriptive-exploratory in nature, and the statistical population consists of experts familiar with the topic of international relations and tourism, among whom 100 people were selected as the research sample using the snowball method. Moreover, for validating the research instrument, content analysis was used; for its reliability, the test-retest method was applied; and for data analysis, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC analysis were utilized. In this regard, the research results show that among the 15 initially identified factors, 5 factors achieved a CVR coefficient above 0.75 in the content validity assessment and were identified as the final influential factors on tourism. Ultimately, the categorization of these factors showed that the five factors—foreign investment in the development of tourism infrastructure; advertising in the media and virtual space; war and conflict; sanctions; and the JCPOA—having high driving power and low dependence, are the key and influential factors on Iran’s tourism.

Keywords

  • International relations, Iran’s tourism, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM), MICMAC, tourism challenges, tourism drivers
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