Journal of Sustainable Urban & Regional Development Studies (JSURDS)
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Assessing the Impacts of Tourism on Economic Growth and Urban Development: A Case Study of the Northwestern Provinces of Iran

Articles in Press

Document Type : Origional Article

Author

saman abizdeh

Assistant Professor, Department of Art and Architecture, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract
Background and Objective: In today's economy, tourism is recognized as one of the key indicators of development and an effective tool for achieving sustainable development. This industry plays a significant role in the economic growth of countries by increasing national income, creating employment, attracting domestic and foreign investment, fostering regional development, and generating foreign exchange earnings. Nevertheless, despite the emphasis on expanding tourism in all development plans and on moving away from a single-product economy reliant on oil exports, Iran has not achieved considerable, tangible, or noticeable success in this area. Therefore, the present study examines the effects of tourism on urban development and economic growth in three provinces—Ardabil, West Azerbaijan, and East Azerbaijan—over the period 2011–2023 (1390–1402 in the Persian calendar). The aim is to determine, considering the tourism potentials of these regions, whether tourism has been able to influence their regional development and growth.
Methodology: The present study is applied in terms of objective, and a library method was used to collect statistics and data. Accordingly, the required data were extracted using the statistical yearbooks of the studied provinces for the period 2011–2023, and a regression model was estimated using the panel data regression method.
Results and Findings: The estimation results of the model indicate that the tourism variable has a positive and significant effect on the economic growth of the studied provinces. Specifically, a one percent increase in the number of incoming tourists to a province leads to a 0.11 percent increase in its economic growth. In other words, despite the existing tourism potentials in these three provinces, particularly their beautiful forest and mountain areas and historical buildings, although the impact of tourism on production growth in these three provinces has been positive, the magnitude of this effect is lower than expected. Furthermore, the coefficients for physical capital, human capital, and labor are estimated to be 0.26, 0.21, and 0.39, respectively. That is, holding other conditions constant, a one percent change in physical capital, human capital, and labor changes the level of output by 0.26%, 0.21%, and 0.39%, respectively.

Keywords

Tourism
Urban Development
Regional Development
Northwestern Provinces of Iran

Subjects

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Journal of Sustainable Urban & Regional Development Studies (JSURDS)

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 01 May 2026

  • Receive Date 23 April 2026
  • Revise Date 30 April 2026
  • Accept Date 29 April 2026
  • First Publish Date 01 May 2026
  • Publish Date 01 May 2026

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