Factors Influencing Tourism Space Commodification in the Mahmoudabad County, Northern Iran

Year 2020, Volume: 6 Issue: 2, 155 - 183, 28.12.2020

Dickson Adom Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli Jilla Sajjadi Saber Sedighi

https://doi.org/10.26650/jot.2020.6.2.0008

Abstract

This study examined the impacts of land-use changes as well as factors that influence tourism space commodification in Mahmoudabad County, Northern Iran. Satellite images were used to identify agricultural land-use changes while empirical data were collected from 379 local people who were randomly sampled with their views, gathered via a reliable, structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics as well as the practical application of the Irridex, Tourism Area Life Cycle, and Weizenegger theoretical models. The satellite images showed massive land-use changes in agricultural lands to tourism facilities. Internal factors such as economic, environmental, and socio-cultural factors as well as external factors such as the influence of the political economy in the areas of the banking system, tax system, and government policies were noted to exacerbate tourism space commodification in the Mahmoudabad County, Northern Iran. To mitigate the increasing tourism space commodification in the study area, policymakers in government, as well as all concerned stakeholders in the tourism sector, must factor the local people into all tourism-related decision-making processes while adopting proactive ways such as tactfully using the tax system, policies forimproving agricultural production, and clear-cut tourism directives that prioritize cultural and environmental consciousness.

Keywords

Environmental factors, Political economy, Socio-cultural factors, Space commodification, Tourism, Mahmoudabad County

Supporting Institution

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.

References

• Adom, D. (2019). The Place and Voice of Local People, Culture, and Traditions: A Catalyst for Ecotourism Development in Rural Communities in Ghana. Scientific African, 6 (e00184): 1-22
• Adom, D., Sawicka, B., Umachandran, K., & Ziarati, P. (2020). Effective Approaches to Ensuring the Active Involvement of Local People in Biodiversity Conservation Projects. International Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences, 20(2), 17-31
• Adom, D., & Boamah, D. A. (2020). Local Attitudes toward the Cultural Seasonal Hunting Bans in Ghana’s Bomfobiri Wildlife Sanctuary: Implications for Sustainable Wildlife Management and Tourism. Global Ecology and Conservation, 24, e01243.
• BBC. (2017). the Country that Tourism Has Taken by Surprise. Available online: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170222-the-country-that-tourism-has-taken-by-surprise (accessed on 22 March 2017).
• Bianchi, R. (2018). The Political Economy of tourism development: A critical review. Annals of Tourism Research, 70: 88–102.
• Boniface, B., Cooper, R., & Cooper, C. (2016). Worldwide destinations: The geography of travel and tourism. Routledge.
• Burns, P. M., & Holden, A. (1995). Tourism: A new perspective. FT Prentice-Hall.
• Burdge, R. J. (1994). A Conceptual Approach to Social Impact. University Press of Colorado: Social Ecology Press. 256p.
• Butler, R. W. (1980). The Concept of a Tourism Area Life Cycle of Evolution. Canadian Geographer, 24, 5-12.
• Cárdenas-García, P. J., Sánchez-Rivero, M., & Pulido-Fernández, J. I. (2015). Does tourism growth influence economic development? Journal of Travel Research, 54(2), 206–221.
• Cavallaro, F., Galati, O. I., & Nocera, S. (2017). Policy Strategies for the Mitigation of GHG Emissions caused by the Mass-Tourism Mobility in Coastal Areas. Transportation Research Procedia, 27, 317–324.
• Cetin, G. (2014). Sustaining tourism development through city tax: The case of Istanbul. E-Review of Tourism Research, 11.
• Cetin, G., Alrawadieh, Z., Dincer, M. Z., Istanbullu Dincer, F., & Ioannides, D. (2017). Willingness to Pay for Tourist Tax in Destinations: Empirical Evidence from Istanbul. Economies, 5(2), 21.
• Crowell, S. G., & Malpas, J. (2007). Transcendental Heidegger. U. S.: Stanford University Press.
• Darban-e-Astaneh, A., Rezvani, M., & Seddiqi, S. (2016). An Investigation of the Factors affecting LandUse Changing (case study: Mahmoudabad County). Journal of Research and Rural Planning, 5(3), 127–143.
• Devine, J. A. (2017). Colonizing space and commodifying place: tourism's violent geographies. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 25(5), 634–650.
• Diedrich, A., & Aswani, S. (2016). Exploring the Potential Impacts of Tourism Development on Social and Ecological Change in the Solomon Islands. Ambio, 45(7), 808–818.
• Doxey, G. V. (1975). A Causation Theory of Visitor-Resident Irritants: Methodology and Research Inferences. In Travel and Tourism Research Association’s Sixth Annual Conference Proceedings (pp. 195–98).
• Eusébio, C., Vieira, A. L., & Lima, S. (2018). Place Attachment, Host–Tourist Interactions, and Residents’ Attitudes towards Tourism Development: The Case of Boa Vista Island in Cape Verde. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 26(6), 890–909.
• Farah, P. D., & Tremolada, R. (2014). Desirability of Commodification of Intangible Cultural Heritage: The Unsatisfying Role of Intellectual Property Rights. Journal of Transnational Dispute Management, 2, 1-12.
• Fitchett, J. A. (1997). Consumption and Cultural Commodification: The Case of the Museum as Commodity. Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Marketing. Scotland: University of Stirling.
• Freire, J. R. (2009). Local People’s Critical Dimension for Place Brands. Journal of Brand Management, 16(7), 420-438.
• Gallent, N. & Tewdwr-Jones, M. (2018). Rural Second Homes in Europe: Examining Housing Supply and Planning Control. New York: Routledge.
• Garau-Vadell, J. B., Gutierrez-Taño, D., & Diaz-Armas, R. (2018). Economic Crisis and Residents’ Perception of the Impacts of Tourism in Mass Tourism Destinations. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 7, 68–75.
• George, Y. (1973). Tourism: Blessing or blight.
• Ghaderi, Z., Saboori, B., & Khoshkam, M. (2017). Does security matter in tourism demand? Current Issues in Tourism, 20(6), 552–565.
• Ghazoul, J., & Chazdon, R. (2017). Degradation and recovery in changing forest landscapes: A multiscale conceptual framework. Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 42, 161–188.
• Gholamalifard, M., & Shoshtary, J. Sh., Hosseini Kahnoj, S.H., & Mirzaei, M.(2012). Modeling of land-use changes in coastal of MAZANDARAN province using LCM in GIS. Journal of Environmental Studies, 38(4), 124–109.
• Gholamalifard, M., Joorabian Shooshtari, S., Hosseini Kahnuj, S., Mirzaei, M. (2013). Land Cover Change Modeling of Coastal Areas of Mazandaran Province Using LCM in a GIS Environment. Journal of Environmental Studies, 38(4), 109–124.
• Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science, 162(3859), 1243–1248.
• Harvey, D. (1982).The limits to capital. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
• Harvey, D. (1990). Between space and time: Reflections on the geographical imagination. Annals, Association of American Geographers, USA.
• Harvey, D. (2010).The Enigma of Capital. London: Profile Books
• Harvey, D. (2012).Spaces of Capital. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Harvey, D. (2016).The Ways of the World. London: Profile Books Ltd.
• Heidegger, M. (1971). Building Dwelling Thinking, appears in Martin Heidegger, Poetry, Language, and Thought, translated by Albert Hofstadter. New York: Harper & Row
• Heidegger, M. (2001). Sein und Zeit (18th Ed). Tubinen, Germany: Max Niemeyer Verlag. (Original Work Published in 1927).
• Hegel, G. W. F. (2015). The Philosophy of Right. U. S.: Hackett Publishing.
• Hsu, C. H., & Huang, S. S. (2016). Reconfiguring Chinese Cultural Values and their Tourism Implications. Tourism Management, 54, 230–242.
• Hughes, G. (1995). The Cultural Construction of Sustainable Tourism. Tourism Management, 16(1), 49–59.
• Hviding, E., & Bayliss-Smith, T. (2018). Islands of Rainforest: Agroforestry, Logging, and Eco-Tourism in the Solomon Islands. New York: Routledge.
• Iran Tourism and Touring Organization (2020). Mazandaran Province. https://www.itto.org (Accessed 12/9/2019)
• Isik, C., Dogru, T., & Turk, E. S. (2018). A nexus of linear and non‐linear relationships between tourism demand, renewable energy consumption, and economic growth: Theory and evidence. International Journal of Tourism Research, 20(1), 38–49.
• Karakaya, H. U. (2014). Commodification of “Place” under late Capitalism through Transforming Architectural Practices (Doctoral Dissertation, Middle East Technical University).
• Loeb, S., Dynarski, S., McFarland, D., Morris, P., Reardon, S. & Reber, S. (2017). Descriptive Analysis in Education: A Guide for Researchers. Washington D. C.: Department of Education, Institute of Educational Services, National Center for Education, Evaluation and Regional Assistance.
• Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. Oxford: Blackwell.
• Lefebvre, H. (2004). Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. London: Continuum.
• Light, D. (2016). The Dracula Dilemma: Tourism, Identity and the State in Romania. Routledge.
• Lock, S. (March 31, 2020). Tourism Worldwide- Statistics & Facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/962/global-tourism/ (Accessed 24/8/2020)
• Martineau, J. (2013). Marxisme anglo-saxon: Figures contemporaines.
• Martineau, J. (2012). Time, capitalism, and alienation: social time relations, clock-time and the making of world standard time, Dessertation submitted to the faculty of graduate studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy, York university, Torento.
• Marx, K. (1973).The Grundrisse. Penguin Harmondsworth, London.
• Marx, K. (2011). Capital, volume one: A critique of political economy. Trans. Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. Ed. Freidrich Engels. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications.
• Mason, P. (2015). Tourism impacts, planning and management. New York: Routledge.
• Malpas, J. (2000). Uncovering the space of disclosedness: Heidegger, technology, and the problem of spatiality in being and time. Heidegger, Authenticity, and Modernity: Essays in honour of Hubert Dreyfus, 1, 205–228.
• Malpas, J. (2008). Heidegger’s Topology: Being, Place, World. Cambridge, U.K.: MIT Press.
• McDowell, L. (2018). Gender, Identity and Place: Understanding Feminist Geographies. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
• Mehrabi, A. A., Mohammadi, M., Mohseni, S. M., Jafari, M., & Ghorbani, M. (2013). Investigation of the human deriving forces affecting land-use change (Case study: Seyed mohaleh and Drasara villages–Tonekabon city). Journal of Range Watershed Management, 66(2), 307-320.
• Mihalič, T. (2000). Environmental management of a tourist destination: A factor of tourism competitiveness. Tourism Management, 21(1), 65–78.
• Mirzaei, R. (2013). Modeling the Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Nature-Based Tourism to the Host Communities and their Support for Tourism: Perception of Local Population in Mazandaran, North Iran. Ph.D. Dissertation, Germany: University of Giessen
• Mirzayi, M., Bakhtiyari, A. R., Mahini, A. S., & Gholamalifard, M. (2013). Investigating the land cover changes in Mazandaran province using landscape ecology’s metrics between 1984-2010. Iranian Journal of Applied Ecology, 2(4), 37–55.
• Mouhamadou, B. L. Y. (2018). An Application of Butler’s Tourist Area Life Cycle to Saly (Senegal). International Journal for Innovation, Education, and Research, 6(1): 47- 56
• Mowforth, M., & Munt, I. (2015). Tourism and Sustainability: Development, globalization and New Tourism in the Third World. Routledge.
• Nam, M., Kim, I., & Hwang, J. (2016). Can local people help enhance tourists’ destination loyalty? A Relational Perspective. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 33(5), 702–716.
• Nicel Yilmaz-Saygin, (2006). Commodification’ of Cities: Promoting Izmir (Turkiye) as a World City, 42nd ISoCARP Congress 2006.
• Norberg-Schulz, C. (1971). Existence, Space, and Architecture, New York: Praeger. Okumus, F., Avci, U., Kilic, I., & Walls, A. R. (2012). Cultural tourism in Turkey: A missed opportunity. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 21(6), 638–658.
• Passariello, P. (2015). Ecotourism and Cultural Production: An Anthropology of Indigenous Spaces in Ecuador by Veronica Davidov. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 288 pp.
• Peck, J. (2005). Economic Sociologies in Space.Economic Geography, 81(2), 129-175
• Piketty, T. (2014). Capital in the Twenty‐First Century: a multidimensional approach to the history of capital and social classes. The British Journal of Sociology, 65(4), 736–747.
• Piketty, T. (2015). About capital in the twenty-first century. The American Economic Review, 105(5), 48–53.
• Pizam, A. & Milman, A. (1986). The Social Impacts of Tourism. Tourism Recreation Research, 11(1): 29-33
• Postone, M. (1993), Time, labor and social domination. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Prodnik, J. A. (2012). A Note on the Ongoing Processes of Commodification: From the Audience Commodity to the Social Factory. TripleC, 10(2): 274-301.
• Půtová, B. (2018). Anthropology of Tourism: Researching Interactions between Hosts and Guests. Czech Journal of Tourism, 7(1), 71-92. DOI: 10.1515/cjot-2018–0004.
• Ratz, T. (2000). The Socio-Cultural Impacts of Tourism Case of Lake Balaton. Czech Republic: Research Support Scheme, 24 p.
• Relph, E. (1976). Place and Placelessness. London: Pion.
• Rivera, M., Croes, R., & Lee, S. H. (2016). Tourism development and happiness: A residents’ perspective. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management, 5(1), 5–15.
• Roberts, L., Hall, D., & Morag, M. (2017). New directions in rural tourism. Routledge.
• Roudi, S., Arasli, H., & Akadiri, S. S. (2018). New insights into an old issue–examining the influence of tourism on economic growth: Evidence from selected small island developing states. Current Issues in Tourism, 1–21.
• Sabatini, F. (2003). The Social Spatial Segregation in the Cities of Latin America. Inter-American Development Bank Sustainable Development Department Social Programs Division, 44p.
• Seaton, T., & Dann, G. M. (2018). Crime, Punishment, and Dark Tourism: The Carnivalesque Spectacles of the English Judicial System. In The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies (pp. 33–76). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
• Sedighi, S., Darban Astane, A., Rezvani, M. (2018). An Investigation of the physical and political Factors Affecting land Use Changing of Mahmoudabad Town. Spatial Planning, 7(2), 39–58.
• Shakeri, A. (2016). An Introduction to Iran Economy in Persian. Rafe’ Publishing, 348–351.
• Shalaby, A., & Tateishi, R. (2007). Remote sensing and GIS for mapping and monitoring land cover and land-use changes in the Northwestern coastal zone of Egypt. Applied Geography, 27(1), 28–41.
• Shareef, R., & McAleer, M. (2005). Modeling international tourism demand and volatility in small island tourism economies. International Journal of Tourism Research, 7(6), 313–333.
• Smith, Neil. (2008). Uneven Development: Nature, Capital and Production of Space, Third Edition, The University of Georgia Press, Athens and London.
• Sroypetch, S., Carr, N., & Duncan, T. (2018). Host and backpacker perceptions of environmental impacts of backpacker tourism: A case study of the Yasawa Islands, Fiji. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 18(2), 203–213.
• Sklenicka, P., Janovská, V., Šálek, M., Vlasak, J. & Molnarova, K. J. (2014). The Farmland Rental Paradox: Extreme land ownership fragmentation as a new form of land degradation. Land Use Policy 38:587-593 DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.01.006
• Soper, A.K. (2007). Developing Mauritianness: National identity, cultural heritage values and tourism. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2, 94–109.
• Su, L., & Swanson, S. R. (2017). The effect of destination social responsibility on tourist environmentally responsible behavior: Compared analysis of first-time and repeat tourists. Tourism Management, 60, 308–321.
• Szromek, A. R., Kruczek, Z. & Walas, B. (2020). The Attitude of Tourist Destination Residents toward the Effects of Overtourism-Krakow Case Study. Sustainability, 12, 228. DOI: 10.3390/su12010228
• Tang, Z. (2015). An integrated approach to evaluating the coupling coordination between tourism and the environment. Tourism Management, 46, 11–19.
• Thanvisitthpon, N. (2015). A social impact assessment of the tourism development policy on a heritage city, Ayutthaya Historical Park, Thailand. Asian Tourism Management, 6(2), 103–144.
• Tribe, J. (2015). The economics of recreation, leisure and tourism. Rutledge.
• UNWTO. (2015). Tourism Highlights. Available online: www.unwto.org (accessed on 16 June 2015).
• Wang, S., & Chen, J. S. (2015). The influence of place identity on perceived tourism impacts. Annals of Tourism Research, 52, 16–28.
• Weizenegger, S. (2006). The TALC Model and Protected Natural Areas: African Examples. In The Tourism Area Life Cycle, Conceptual and Theoretical Issues; Butler, R.W., Ed.; Channel View Publications: Clevedon, NY, USA; Buffalo, NY, USA; Toronto, ON, Canada, 2, 124–137
• Wilson, J. (2013). “The Devastating Conquest of the Lived by the Conceived” The Concept of Abstract Space in the Work of Henri Lefebvre. Space and Culture, 16(3), 364- 38
• World Bank (2016). International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. https://www.worldbank.org (Accessed 15/9/2019)