Sulayman KURDEH, Ghafur SHEIKH, Fatama HASHEMI NEJAD ABRESI, Azad SHEIKH SMAEILI

A Sociological Study of Domestic Tourism and the Factors Influencing It

Abstract. The purpose of this research was to examine the sociological aspects of domestic tourism and the factors that affect it in Sari City, Iran. The theoretical framework is built on Goffman’s dramaturgical model, Parsons’ social exchange theory, Homans’s social exchange theory, Alfred Schütz’s concepts of nostalgia and authenticity, and Jean Cazeneuve’s concepts of communication and advertising. Accordingly, the relationship between domestic tourism and motivation, knowledge, revisit intentions, satisfaction, promotion, accommodation, natural/historical attractions, and education was examined. The population consisted of all the tourists visiting Sari in 2011 (N = 61614) of whom 397 were selected as the sample using cluster sampling and Cochran’s formula. Data were collected from tourism databases and a questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the instrument were verified. Descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, Spearman and Pearson correlation, path analysis, and factor analysis were used to analyze the data. The results showed that all the variables except revisit intentions were significantly associated with domestic tourism. Moreover, the results of path analysis indicated that revisit intentions were significantly associated with promotion and satisfaction. That is, tourists are more likely to revisit the city if they are satisfied with their experience and if the city is well-advertised.

Keywords:

Domestic tourism, multi-factor structure, tourist, tourism,

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