Iranian academic centre for education، culture and research ACECR

Tourism Economics Department of Academic Center for Education, Culture, and Research (ACECR)

Established to conduct fundamental, developmental, and applied studies and research projects in various economic fields in various economic fields with an emphasis on tourism economics, the ACECR's Department of Tourism Economics started its activities in 2004. The department has so far conducted numerous economics-oriented research projects in various economic fields at local, provincial, and national scales.

The department's research scope covers some sub-areas of main tourism studies, including employment, marketing, investment and financing, economic and financial feasibility, tourism business environment, and economic advisory services. Moreover, the department's major activities include research and development, planning, documenting, and obtaining tourism information, offering consulting services on tourism-related issues, and transferring knowledge to the relevant community. In fact, the department's main areas of activities are as follows:

• • Conducting applied research on novel tourism-related issues, especially tourism economics
  • Analyzing the revenues, profitability, and direct and indirect benefits derived from the tourism industry
  • Conducting studies on Investing in and financing the tourism industry (methods, planning, policy-making, and impact analysis)
  • Conducting studies on the business environment and the structure of tourism economics at local, regional, and national levels
  • Conducting studies on the status of employment, employment system, classification, and job planning in the tourism industry
  • Conducting economic studies on market and marketing
  • Conducting market and marketing studies in various economic fields
  • Economic planning in tourism industry and analysis of its effects

 

The department has presented a variety of scientific works in terms of scientific and research plans, books, and papers in the field of tourism economics. Furthermore, it tries to perform needs assessment, identify the problems, and establish effective communications with the target community and market to operationalize the applied research and scientific studies, publishing the obtained results via specialized meetings, seminars, and training workshops.

 

 

Program series:

The ACECR's Department of Tourism Economics has executed two series of programs in the form of a set of scientific-applied projects. The first program series was run from 2016 to 2019 with the title of "Investment and financing in the tourism industry" in the form of four projects. The second program series entitled "economic planning for the development of tourism in Iran and Khorasan Razavi" has been started in 2021, being executed in the form of four projects whose main themes are as follows:

• • Theoretical principles of investment in and financing tourism industry
  • Efficient financing methods in the tourism industry
  • Organizational and managerial processes involved in attracting capital in the tourism industry
  • Investment opportunities in tourist attractions
  • Effects of investment in the tourism industry
  • Job creation potentials of the tourism industry in Iran and Khorasan Razavi and analysis of its effects
  • Tax and price effects on the tourism industry in Iran and Khorasan Razavi
  • Economic planning for tourism based on macroeconomics variables

 

Completed Research projects 

Some of the department's previous and ongoing research projects are as follows:

• • Developing the economic-studies part of the strategic vision and the 5-year program of the pilgrimage of Imam Reza (AS)
  • Developing tourism development roadmap based on innovation and technology
  • Preparing the Khorasan Razavi's input-output table and analysis of its applications
  • Performing capacity and feasibility assessment for the establishment and development of medical tourism in
  • Developing a plan for increasing the share of handicrafts in the souvenirs bought by pilgrims  
  • Offering strategies for facilitating investments in developing tourism in Shiraz
  • Preparing the Khorasan Razavi Province's document for developing employment and investment (Tourism and Heritage Document Studies)
  • Presenting a model for using endowment in Mashhad's tourism industry
  • Investigating the factors involved in the private sector’s investment in Mashhad's recreational attractions (swimming pools and water parks)
  • Investigating the economic status of pilgrims and the factors affecting their stay
  • Investigating the influential factors in the selection of shopping centers by tourists
  • Developing a framework for preparing regional tourism satellite accounts (RSTA)
  • Examining the development of agricultural and rural tourism from an economic perspective

Publication of books and research papers:

• Publishing more than 90 research papers in prestigious domestic and international scientific-research journals
• Participating and presenting papers in more than 70 domestic and international seminars and conferences
• Authoring and translating 7 books

Books:

• • The science of designing in tourism (in Persian)
  • Food, Agriculture, and Tourism (in Persian)
  • Open Tourism (in Persian)
  • Dropping the ladder (in Persian)
  • Economic Structure of the Tourism Science: Concepts, Principles, and Development (under publication) (in Persian)

 

Capabilities:

• • Performing fundamental research on the tourism economy
  • Conducting applied development research on the tourism economy
  • Providing feasibility assessment and economic evaluation of investments in tourism sites and locations
  • Identifying and preparing investment catalogs
  • Holding specialized workshops on various fields of the tourism economy
  • Preparing tourist data and tourism satellite accounts
  • Conducting tourism economics studies in various sub-areas of tourism, including religious tourism, health tourism, ecotourism, historical and cultural tourism, urban tourism, industrial-commercial tourism, rural tourism, etc.