Spatial Analysis of Tourism Attractions in Ardabil Using the Moran's Model

A B S T R A C T
Spatial analysis of tourist attractions is one of the most important measures that are carried out in order to investigate and explore tourism capacity. The purpose of this research is the spatial analysis of the tourist attractions of Ardabil city, which investigates and analyzes this category using the Moran's model. The current research is of applied type and its method is survey. Related data and information have been collected through library studies and document analysis, in parallel with that, using a questionnaire, 32 experts in the field of tourism and geography expressed their opinions regarding the indicators. Probability sampling method is stratified sampling. According to the research findings, Moran's value for the tourist attractions of Ardabil city is about 0.276639 and while all the coefficients in the spatial delay model, spatial error model, ordinary least squares are significant, the natural attractions of Ardabil city have the highest values. From the results of the present research, it can be pointed out that in the context of the city under study, the relationship between cultural, historical and natural tourism attractions with the flow of tourists is positive and significant, and all relevant models confirm this positive relationship and it is necessary According to the priority of the attractions, basic and relevant measures can be taken.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Tourist attractions act as a gathering place to display tourism resources and are the core and location of tourism activities. Tourist attractions can be sightseeing spots, natural reserves, cultural museums, tourist resorts, geoparks, etc. Therefore, many researchers have investigated and analyzed the classification of tourist attractions. For example, Pearce et al. It divides tourist attractions into two categories: natural and man-made. This classification is similar to the classification of tourism resources and shows that tourist attractions usually have integrated elements that are natural and man-made and cannot be completely separated. especially tourist attractions with natural and cultural heritage. Classify tourist attractions based on natural or man-made, paid or free, public or private, local or regional market, and domestic or international market. However, he did not suggest the names of the various tourist attractions, only the classification criteria. Lew pointed out that most studies have basically classified tourist attractions from three perspectives, namely, ideographic, structural, and cognitive tourist perspectives. Although some researchers have found that the size of regional tourist attractions is closely related to the degree of spatial density of tourist attractions, but this category needs a more detailed investigation. On the other hand, due to the complex combination of tourist attractions visited during multi-attraction trips, tourism researchers have tried to investigate the nature of tourists' spatial behavior. However, since a tourist attraction can be considered as a source of income and vital, there is a need to investigate and analyze the effective factors in this field. In addition, the use of big data and traditional geographic information systems to study the spatial pattern of tourist attractions in Ardabil region is very general, and to fill this research gap, this study deals with the spatial analysis of tourist attractions in Ardabil city. The research questions of this study are as follows.
 
Methodology
In terms of purpose, the current research is practical and of a survey type, which deals with the spatial analysis of the tourist attractions of Ardabil city using the Moran's model. Below we describe the general approach adopted in the study, which is organized in several stages. This study uses Lew classification in relation to historical, cultural and natural attractions; He sends related indicators to tourism and geography experts in Ardabil province and analyzes the results using Moranz's formula. The next step examines whether there is spatial dependence or autocorrelation in the attractiveness patterns of tourist trips. Following the identification of different explanatory variables, these variables can also explain economic, spatial and regional characteristics. Then, modeling the relationship between tourism patterns and related explanatory variables using regression to evaluate the factors. The participants of the current research are a group of academic and executive experts in the field of tourism in Ardabil province, who were identified using stratified sampling, and 32 experts responded to the researcher's questionnaire.
 
Results and discussion
According to the analysis, it has been determined that the value of Moran's for the tourist attractions of Ardabil city is about 0.276639, which is a significant figure and indicates a strong positive spatial correlation. All coefficients in the spatial lag model, spatial error model, ordinary least squares are significant because the corresponding p-values are less than the 0.05 significance level. Here we see that while all three attractions, i.e. cultural, natural and historical attractions, are associated with a higher tourist flow, which considering all the values, is considered as a suitable model with a significant spatial parameter of 0.3572. In more general terms, in all models, there is a positive and meaningful relationship between tourism flow and variables such as historical, cultural and natural attractions, and this relationship is confirmed in the context of the concept of spatial analysis. Also, the obtained values show that from the experts' point of view, natural attractions are highly attractive to attract tourists in Ardabil city.
Conclusion
The purpose of the current research is to investigate the spatial analysis of tourist attractions in Ardabil city, which was investigated and analyzed using the Moran's model. Although it is very important to investigate the types of tourist attractions and the spatial density of tourist attractions, there is limited research on spatial patterns and factors affecting overall tourist attractions in specific regions and its components. To address the theoretical gap and further study the spatial structure of the distribution of different types of tourist attractions, this study not only classifies the tourist attractions in Ardabil city, but also examines the features of the spatial structure and their influencing factors. Tourist attractions are widely distributed in terms of spatial density and spatial distribution characteristics. This may be due to the region's rich tourism resources and developed economy, which has ultimately created a large number of tourist attractions and a high degree of development. According to the findings of the present research, firstly, natural attractions, then natural and finally, cultural attractions are the main tourist attractions in Ardabil city, which account for the flow of tourism in certain seasons of the year. Natural ecological tourism attractions and historical and cultural tourism attractions also have a great contribution in attracting tourists in Ardabil city. In general, the spatial patterns of these tourist attractions are more in historical and cultural centers than in natural areas. Also, the direction of spatial distribution of tourist attractions is also different from each other. In fact, the spatial distribution values show that the natural tourist attractions of Ardabil city are stronger than the natural and cultural tourist attractions, and this article has increased the density of tourist flow towards the historical attractions.
 
Funding
There is no funding support.
 
Authors’ Contribution
Authors contributed equally to the conceptualization and writing of the article. All of the authors approved thecontent of the manuscript and agreed on all aspects of the work declaration of competing interest none.
 
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
 
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.