Tourism Development in Shiraz: Emphasizing Cultural and Historical Sites

Nowadays tourism and especially urban tourism plays a constructive role in developing economic, social-cultural, spatial and political structure of countries and developing ones in particular. There are many tourist attractions in cities among which cultural-historical sites constitute the most attractive and complete behavior settings. Shiraz is a historic city in Iran and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country in which there are several cultural-historical places. Zandieh complex, as the core of this ancient heritage, is one of the most important attractions in Shiraz, protecting and developing which is considered as the major factor in developing and reviving urban tourism in this city. Therefore this dissertation is to study the most characteristic features of Zandieh complex to achieve sustainable urban tourism development goals. To this end we used descriptive-analytic methods as well as questionnaire to collect field data in our research. Adapting SPSS based on SOAR model to test research hypotheses revealed that Zandieh complex held great potential to achieve sustainable development goals and could play a crucial role in assisting urban economics development. And finally we formulate effective strategies for using this precious heritage and encouraging sustainable urban tourism development.