Global connectivity facilitated tourism and redefined economic landscapes, highlight an interest in better understanding tourism retention factors. Today, in view of the global COVID-19 pandemic, this is made even more important as the world prepares to lift lockdown restrictions and to re-engage in cross border circulation; reiterating needs to understand tourism satisfaction and revisit intentions. This study thus sheds light on the predictors of tourists’ intention to the explorative and exploitative use of Smart Tourism Technologies (STTs) and memorable experiences in tourism destinations via an integrated model and a self-administered questionnaire—distributed among domestic tourists visiting Tehran—employing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). The results indicated that tourists’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control toward STTs had significant positive impacts on their explorative and exploitative intentions. Furthermore, tourists’ explorative/exploitative intention and perceived behavioral control exercised significant, positive effects on their memorable experiences. Finally, the results demonstrate that tourists’ memorable experiences significantly influence their satisfaction and intention to revisit smart destinations. This study expands existing literature by exploring a new model for enhancing memorable experiences and revisit intention using STTs, and presents findings applicable to the city of Tehran, while adopting a model which can be replicated in other geographies looking at better understanding its tourism landscape. Finally, the results in this study can be helpful for both researchers and policy makers in their quest to rejuvenate local post-pandemic economies via tourism measures.

This study examines the influence of the various attributes of smart tourism technologies (STTs) on tourists’ intentions to revisit locations and engage in word-of-mouth (WOM) activities regarding emerging and smart rural tourist destinations in Iran. A sample of 590 tourists who visited these destinations following the COVID-19 pandemic participated in the study. The findings reveal that three attributes of STTs, namely, informativeness, accessibility, and interactivity, positively contribute to tourists’ memorable experiences (ME). Furthermore, ME, satisfaction, and the willingness to engage in WOM recommendations are identified as predictors of tourists’ intention to revisit rural destinations. The study also reveals that user competence serves as a mediator between the attributes of STTs (informativeness, accessibility, and interactivity) and the tourists’ ME. Specifically, tourists with greater skills and knowledge of using STTs tend to have more memorable experiences in these emerging and smart rural destinations. The study discusses both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

The current study focused on the impact of policies adopted by rentier states on tourism plans and poverty reduction from the viewpoint of Stakeholders in rural areas of Turan National Park, Iran. A qualitative face-to-face interview were undertaken of 30 respondents through snow-ball sampling technique. Due to the geographical isolation of the area and traditional ways of living, the rural people there suffer from severe poverty. In recent years, the Iranian government has made efforts to reduce poverty through the development of tourism in these areas by means of mandatory plans and government budgets. The results showed that government-supported tourism has been able to reduce poverty to some extent, and it has increased opportunities, job skills and willingness of the poor to participate. However, the centralized administrative structure of Iran is in contrast with the participation and sharing of power to all groups, including the poor. Such a structure, indeed, is keen on implementing its plans in an imperative manner.

This study sought to compare the effect of lecture and Jigsaw teaching strategies attitude and Environmentally Responsible Behavior among the tourism resorts staff members of Abr, Shahrud, Iran. The jigsaw technique, which focuses on development of peer cooperation and teamwork through division of tasks among students, takes place through each student’s assuming responsibility. In this article, the quantitative analyses, a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design with control group was adopted. Sixty rural resorts staff members of Abr were selected through convenient sampling. The results indicated that, in comparison with the lecture teaching strategy, The Jigsaw teaching strategy significantly enhanced the staff’s attitude and Environmentally Responsible Behavior. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of attitude and Environmentally Responsible Behavior before the interventions, but after the interventions, the mean scores of attitude and Environmentally Responsible Behavior were significantly different in Jigsaw group from that of the lecture group. Analyzing the data obtained in the qualitative phase (i.e. interviews) revealed that, after 18 months of environmental training, there were differences between the control and experimental groups in terms of attitude and Environmentally Responsible Behavior.

This study sought to identify issues and challenges of pro-poor tourism (PPT) by concentrating on a tourism development program implemented in three selected villages of Shahrud County, Iran. The results indicated that the major proportion of financial and non-financial support in the tourism, employment, and poverty reduction (TEPR) program is provided for the private sector and dominant social groups. On the other hand, the poor's lifestyle and deterministic viewpoint exacerbate the condition in terms of their engagement in tourism industry. The findings also support the idea that, since the government covers all the costs of the TEPR program, it tries to dictate its policies and plans to all stakeholders.