A Multiple Geospatial Approach for Intangible Cultural Heritage Tourism Potentiality Mapping in Iran

Abstract

Intangible cultural heritage has recently emerged as an important sector of sustainable tourism development programs. In this regard, the main objective of this study was to map and examine the capability of different cities in Iran for intangible cultural heritage (ICH) tourism. For the methodological perspective, we employed an integrated geographical information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) as efficient geospatial approaches for intangible tourism potentiality assessment. Regarding this goal, we concluded that Iranian pastoral nomads have a number of unique characteristics that are suitable to international tourists from a geographical, social, cultural, and artistic perspective. From the methodological framework, we employed an integrated geographical information system and multiple geospatial approaches for analyzing the ICH features and intangible tourism potentiality assessment. The methodological framework includes several major steps, including (a) the selection of the criteria and preparation of a GIS dataset, as well as standardization; (b) criteria weighting and sensitivity analysis; and finally, (c) criteria aggregation and production of the final ICH maps. The results of this study indicated that there is a very high capability of intangible and cultural tourism and heritage in different parts of the country, which are variable based on the local customs, traditions, events, and cultural characteristics. As the results indicated, the highest level of the ICH potentiality was found in Urmia, Khoy, Tabriz, Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Dezful, and Kashan. These cities are ranked based on the overall capability and contribution of the national intangible tourism potentiality assessment. The results of this study indicated that Iran has indeed remarkable ICH capabilities that can be used as the base of efficient sustainable development programs. However, due to international sanctions and political issues, developing a sustainable tourism program has already faced critical challenges. Based on the results, we concluded that the information obtained from this study leads local stakeholders, decision-makers, and authorities to identify the potentiality of each area and take into account developing tourism plans. In addition, the obtained information will also support readers, international travelers and tourism agencies to understand the potentiality of each area, as well as the suitability of different areas for intended travel objects, and to develop tourism programs and plans.

1. Introduction and Theoretical Background

As a socioeconomic phenomenon, tourism has grown to become the world’s largest and fastest expanding sector. It has been found to have a significant impact on economic development [1,2]. Cultural tourism is a subsector of the tourism industry related to the culture, religions, history, and lifestyle of the people in their geographical areas, as well as the art, architecture, and cultural features that have impacted their way of life in those counties or regions [3,4,5]. Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) has recently emerged as an important sector of tourism development for many countries with such cultural heritage resources. In this context, the value of ICH has frequently been employed to drive tourism development and policy decisions [6]. The significance of ICH has been extensively acknowledged from the perspective of cultural diversity, destination marketing and sustainable tourism development [7]. Intangible tourism refers to numerous traditional cultural manifestations that have been passed down from generation to generation and are regarded as an intrinsic part of the cultural history of all ethnic groups [8]. Obviously, creative industries and intangible heritage can play a key part in post-pandemic tourism strategy plans by strengthening tourism management and creating new attractive locations for creative workers, tourists, and communities. As a result, their contribution to place-making and the production of new experiences may support the redistribution of tourism activity [9,10,11,12,13].

In spite of the term ‘intangible’, ICH not only comprises immaterial elements such as practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, and abilities, but also tangible aspects such as instruments, objects, artifacts, and cultural places [14]. The concept of heritage—cultural, historical, and natural—is a human construct that changes based on the historical and social environment. Currently, it is assumed that all of humanity’s heritage, including cultural assets and the environment, is part of a kind of communal heritage established by modern society [15]. It is well understood that the tourism sector contributes to the development of creative cities by offering items that distinguish the destination and are directly related to local and territorial characteristics [12]. In the globally competitive tourism business, authentic ICH offers any suitable area with a distinctive selling factor [16]. Since intangible cultural property is experiential in nature, it promotes tourists’ need for a culturally authentic experience. However, ICH is modified and staged too frequently and to varying degrees during the commodification process, which can contribute to a loss of authenticity [17,18]. ICH features such as oral traditions, performing arts, celebratory gatherings, and traditional craftsmanship are examples of intangible cultural assets that have been passed down through generations [18,19]. Each culturally diverse community has its own distinct and authentic ICH, which is not only an essential component of a community’s spirit but can also be a valuable resource for producing tourism at both the national and local levels [19].

Culturally speaking, the preservation and enhancement of a tradition that had previously gone undetected and would have been lost is conclusively recognized as a strength. Furthermore, the revaluation of sharecropping heritage is acknowledged as an additional value to the local cultural offer, which already has a remarkable heritage of history, art, craft traditions, customs, and events [20]. The tourism sector could significantly benefit sustainable development and their relationship can be considered a positive and negative approach. Tourism provides opportunities in terms of employability, attraction and investment in entrepreneurship [21,22]. It can also generate concrete economic value for natural and cultural resources, resulting in overall economic growth [4,23]. Tourism’s advantages are also associated with community pride, tolerance, and a deeper feeling of ethnic identity [24].

Based on the significance of the tourism sector for the economy of each country and attempts to develop it in a sustainable way, there has been a rise in the literature on sustainable tourism, reflecting the interest among academics and industry practitioners from both the public and commercial sectors [25]. In spite of the tourism industry’s capability for improving the economy of local communities, sometimes excessive tourism might also affect locals in famous tourist sites in a variety of ways, including housing supply, traffic, litter, and pollution [26]. Thus, effective sustainable tourism development addresses the tourism industry as it takes full account of its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, referring to the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and the host communities [27]. In this regard, ICH tourism has been defined as tourism centered on ICH resources and ICH destinations from the standpoint of attraction [16]. According to the interests and motives of tourists, ICH tourism is visiting ICH attractions and obtaining cultural experiences [28,29]. Furthermore, cultural tourism and historical tourism are the more widely used classifications for ICH tourism [11,30]. In the context of ICH tourist development, ICH features can be employed to guide decision-making for developing a sustainable tourism industry [31].

The World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) inaugural tourism research and ICH proposal suggested that ICH assets can be exploited as tourism products in a variety of ways. Essentially, both the government and local populations can benefit from ICH. However, because of its complex definition, as well as the huge and scattered nature of ICH data, it is difficult to assess and infer research patterns and future directions for ICH tourism. Similarly, several studies have recognized creative components that support the maintenance of ICH, and creative tourism is probably a solution to ICH’s issues [32]. Despite the fact that ICH has become an important tourism resource for both governments and local communities, ICH potentiality assessment is rarely studied [16].

In the context of sustainable tourism, creative tourism is known as travel directed toward an engaged and authentic experience with participatory learning in the arts, heritage, or special character of a place, and it provides a connection with those who reside in this place and create this living culture [14]. However, despite the growing interest in ICH and the advice to take a sustainable approach to developing ICH, the evaluation and mapping of the potentiality of ICH’s capability using geospatial approaches still need to be addressed efficiently [7,19]. To some extent, tourism growth has supported the preservation and development of ICH, with certain governments turning to ICH as a reliable source of revenue. In the context of the long-term sustainable development of ICH tourism, a balance must be struck between ICH and non-heritage tourism development, with connected tourism products reflecting value while addressing tourists’ emotional demands. As a result, ICH’s value might become a focus of product development [31]. Meanwhile, inhabitants, who play critical roles in ICH marketing, can increase ICH product quality through their cognition, attitudes, and tourism intentions [7]. Furthermore, ICH is critical for the long-term viability of heritage sites, and its basic features are firmly ingrained in locations and communities, which are significant variables in the formation of new global and competitive scenarios [7,33].

In the context of analyzing the capability of ICH for sustainable tourism development, spatial analysis, tracing, recognizing, and locating cultural assets can be considered powerful approaches for communities. Cultural mapping collects significant cultural information, traditions, tales, attitudes, and expectations that identify individuals in their locales and in the larger world [34]. It is also an effective governance approach, integrating communities into the bottom–up process of actively establishing a place’s identity. Cultural mapping improves social cohesion and is thus a ‘first step in a longer path toward cultural sustainability’ because it is location-based and involves participatory involvement [34,35]. Based on this statement and a lack of comprehensive study for analyzing and mapping the ICH capability in Iran, the current research aims to address and apply an integrated geospatial approach for mapping the ICH capability in Iran.

2. Study Area of Iran

The case study was Iran, which is known as one the oldest countries in the world with its sovereignty dating back in 3200 BC. Iran, with its enormous cultural heritage, customs, events, and traditions, is known as a critical country for domestic tourism [36,37]. The ICH capability of Iran is based on a wide range of national and local attractions, including ancient and historical sites, natural landscapes, museums, religious shrines and holy sites, rituals and customs, indigenous arts and handicrafts, traditional foods and drinks, habitation installations and entertainment, transportation facilities, and so on [1,38,39]. Nowadays, with the aim of developing and expanding ICH tourism, the country has a significant strategic opportunity in the methodical growth of inbound tourism [40].

Iran’s population is diverse, with several ethnic groups expressing their own identities through language, customs, and clothing. Nomadic tourism benefits from ethnic and tribal diversity, which is multicultural in character. Iran’s tribes have preserved a variety of cultures and types of social and political organization. Recognizing this variation, observers have classified them in a variety of ways for various purposes. Tribal groups are frequently mentioned by ethnic affiliation, that is, by language and/or purported origins, in official or historical documents, and, in some recent reports, from the perspective of the state [25]. As the Statistical Center of Iran pointed out, the population of the country based on the recent census is determined to be about 84,550,000 (https://www.amar.org.ir/english/, accessed on 1 March 2023). Based on this report, there are 37,000 villages, 1300 cities, and 387 counties categorized into 31 provinces. Figure 1 shows the location of the subdivision in the 31 provinces and 387 counties selected as the basis for this study.

3. Methodological Framework

For this study, we employed an integrated geographical information system (GIS) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) as efficient geospatial approaches for intangible tourism potentiality assessment (ITPA). Technically speaking, GIS-MCDA is known as one of the most popular techniques for susceptibility modeling with applications in many scientific domains [41,42]. It is one of the most widely used decision-making techniques and can be efficiently employed to map ICH potentiality assessment in the country based on the relevant criteria. Essentially, GIS-MCDA employs the relevant indicators as criteria to determine the ITPA degree in different parts of the country. The methodological framework includes several major steps, including (a) the selection of the criteria and preparation of a GIS dataset, as well as standardization; (b) criteria weighting and sensitivity analysis; and finally, (c) criteria aggregation and production of the final ITPA maps. Each step includes the application of different methods such as the selection of relevant criteria (

Table 1. Selected criteria and dataset for the ITPA.

Major Category	Category	Subcategory
Customs and events	Rituals of the solar year	Vocal and puppet ritual; Saturday of the year in Niriz; Hakoni flower ritual in Mojen city of Semnan; Nowruz Siyadan; an old ceremony among the coastal residents; Nowruz celebration in Bel Gilan; Nowruz ritual of Kose Glin in Hamadan, Takm-Gardani ritual.
	Rituals of the lunar year	Votive tables (Ash Abu Darda: Pot of Hazrat Zahra (pbuh); Ash Omaj (a type of soup) Komaj; Ash ‘Sarkoche’ or ‘Bulgurkhair’ or ‘Ash Rah God’;Halwa of twelve Imams; Table of Hazrat Abulfazl Samanoo; the table of Hazrat Ruqiya Khatoon: Trouble-shooting chickpeas; Muharram customs; the Muharram mourning ceremony; day of Muharram; Breastfeeding (ritual); Tasua Alam (the religious ceremony); holding the traditional ceremony of turning the palm; the art of chanting ta’zieh or simulating; Half-Sha’ban celebration; Ashurai veiling and religious figures are an art left over from the Safavid and Qajar eras, Islamic Ta’ziyeh; Ashura burning tent ceremony; Tasu’a day marking ceremony; the traditional dawn ritual.
	Cultural and religious rituals	Pilgrimage to the Church of Saint Thaddeus Badrak Qara Church ceremony; the ceremony of Pir Shaliar, Glin Koseh Festival or Spring Festival; table Bibi on Tuesday; pilgrimage rituals of Hazrat Fatima Masoumeh; traditional chanting in Khorramabad; Pir Naraki (to pray on the 12th to the 16th of August); Khel Arab ceremony and burning tents in Noushabad.
	Special rituals and ceremonies	Nowruz reading ritual; grape festival; Shalantazi ritual associated with Chaharbansuri; commemorating the 31st anniversary of the martyrs of Sardasht chemical bombing; performance of the religious show “Keshti Pahlo Geghre; thanksgiving ceremony of Sarzah village of Hizaj Qahavand subject ‘Heft Orang’; Cheleh night and Yalda night customs; the traditional rite of crab slaughtering in Lahijan; ceremony of ‘Salmaq pearl’ in Kamijan city; Al-Lashdarma (holding hands) is a tradition of weddings; Mafe or Mafegeh is a kind of special memorial architecture.
Traditions and oral manifestations	Oral literature	Azerbaijan Bayati Larry; Turku Naghillar; Topmajalar (Turkish Chistans); verse reading language; the legend of Black Galash is believed in the culture of the people of Gilan; Gareh Seri (genuine Gilki lullaby); Dede Korkud’s book; Se Kashti is a form of poetry.
	Dialects	Afshar dialect of Turkish languag; Shakaki Kurdish dialect; Sorani Kurdish dialect, Assyrian dialect; Tati dialect; Khoyini dialect; Ardalani dialect, Horami dialect; Kalhari dialect; Fili dialect; Lori dialect; Laki dialect; Zargari dialect; Khalji dialect; Mazni dialect; Arabic language dialects; Bakhtiari dialect; Qashqai dialect; Bakhtiari dialect; Boyer Ahmadi dialect; Dehdashti dialect; Tangestani dialect; Dashtestani dialect; Mashhadi dialect; Dari dialect; Birjandi dialect; Khusfi dialect; Shirazi dialect; Qashqai dialect.
Performing arts	Music	Ethnic musicology; Hiran Khaani; magami music; Kermanshah’s tambour playing; Ashiqlari music of Zanjan; Palmenbari’s centenary laments in Dezful music; Dashti Khoani or local songs of the kind in Dezful music; Bushehri music; anthropology of local music of Khorasan; Hanabandan customs in Semnan; music of Balochistan (music of Iran’s 23 regions).
	Dramatic dances	Azərbaycan dance (Misri, Qaytağı); Kürd dancing; Helpeharki; Helpeharin; Helperege; Ceppi; Chuopi; Dilan; Shai; Sema; Govend; Halai dance; Larry dances.
Knowledge and techniques related to nature and cosmos	Knowledge of chronology and astronomy	Behizaki chronology or Vihizhakik chronology; Gilan history chronology; Sangsari chronology; chronology of Kerman.
	Agricultural techniques	Doshab or homemade grape juice; the art of cooking homemade semnoi; sunflower seeds; pumpkin seeds; cultivated olives; water distribution of traditional gardens of Qazvin; paddy cultivation in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad; Tas and Kapel local museum; Strawberry greenhouse in Sanandaj; saffron production.
	Livestock and poultry breeding techniques	Honey production in Khoi; animal oil or yellow oil; animal oil or yellow oil; Nowghandari economy in Golestan; horse breeding; silkworm breeding in Gilan; bee breeding in Sablan range.
	General medicine	Traditional medicine of West Azarbaijan; Ardabil; Kermanshah; Hamedan; traditional medicine of Gilan; Zanjan; Qazvin; the traditional knowledge of Qarukgiri or Telgiri Qazvin; traditional medicine of Gilan.
	Native and traditional techniques	Herbal extracts; homemade tomato paste; Gulabgiri Festival in Gilde Shaft village; Gilan; drying grapes and preparing fresh and delicious homemade raisins; oak charcoal; extracting turpentine from trunk trees; the picking of Persimmons; Saveh Pomegranate, salt harvesting in Urmia lake; Manizan grape juice making.
Traditional arts and crafts	Handwoven fabrics	Hand-woven carpets of Mahi Khoi; Kurdistan carpet and its features; Jajim; the embroidery of the vineyard; traditional carpet weaving skills in Kashan; Shiraz handwoven carpet; the carpet weaving of Qali Kerman.
	Metal works	Knife making (Zanjan); the knowledge and technique of changari (traditional blacksmithing) in Ardabil; traditional blacksmithing in Kermanshah; making a tambourine; Qazvin copper smithing.
	Wooden works	Wood carving; painting on wood; Chalg and mieh kot (large wooden mortar) of Ilam.
	Musical instruments	Ashiqi construction techniques; the skills of making and playing the Dohol instrument; skill in making ancient Iranian harp; making a tambourine; traditional music of Dotar; playing of Nawa Naqara.
	Enameling	Carving (Golpayegan); wooden frames as Chinese knot sashes.
	Traditional embroidery	Forty embroidery in Qazvin; Sewing quilts and mats; the art of ababafi; shawl weaving; two-mil shawl weaving of seamless socks with five needles.
	Other handicrafts	Traditional jewelry of Kurdistan; Leather crafts; calligraphy; financial felt (Semnan).
	Special arts	The technique and skill of traditional oven making; the skill of sewing traditional clothes of Gilan; an ancient industry of Ardabil Hatter; life and paintings of Nene Hassan; Sashes (traditional window); the art of card weaving; the art of painting behind glass; soten mesh art; Qazvin embroidery; prefabricated plaster in Qazvin; the art of raphagari; Izar Bafi; glassmaking techniques; weaving stubble; famous and luxurious Iranian embroidery; Chengumsazi and Makneh; the art of; Boria Bafi; Zarghan; Khosdozi Hormozgan; silk spinning industry in Torbat Heydarieh; seven-color tiles.
Food and cooking	Special local dishes	Gozlameh traditional soup, mo leaf dolme (or dolmasi yaparaq); Buttermilk soup, the skill of baking traditional bread; the skill of cooking ghee pie; the skill of Hadik Ashi; the skill of cooking traditional Mashginshahr sugar bread; The traditional way of preparation and skill of cooking Bijar Paroshke soup; local fasanjan of Tarem city; cooking traditional food ‘Uzbasturma’; cooking traditional’ Rijab Qapli food; the skill of harvesting and cooking the Te Rag (mountain vegetable); techniques of baking Tocheri bread (Barko) in Bakhtiari; cooking method of traditional food of Kachi; Abuzidabad; Aran and Bidgol.
	Special local snacks	Urmia walnut paste; Ardabil black halvah; Haft Bijar pickle and halva Suhani; Zanjan Churgi tea sweets; preparation of rice bread; Qazvin preparation of qaq, local sweet bread; the skill of preparing the local sweets of Kalehkanji; the skill of cooking Sohan Qom; preparation of Yazdi cake; Nabat and Polki of Isfahan.
Local dress style	Local clothing	Traditional Azerbaijani dress; traditional kurdish dress (Kurdistan felt vest (Franji Horaman); traditional Lori dress; the skill of tying Gllooni among the men and women of lorestan nomads); traditional clothing of Mazandaran Jalga, traditional Turkmen clothing; traditional Arabic clothing, Bakhtiari traditional clothing; Bakhtiari hat; the local dress of the Behmai tribe; local coverage of North Khorasan Turks; Sangsari women’s tent Sagira or ‘Sargira’ a woolen tent; traditional Balochi clothing; traditional clothing of the Persian Gulf regions; clothing of Zoroastrian women of Yazd; traditional dress of the people of Abyaneh village; local dress of women and men of Qashqai nomads, traditional clothing of women and men of Izadakhast; nomadic women’s clothing.
Native and local sports and games	Native and local games	Sword game; nomadic wooden game; Kurdish wrestling (Koshti with chokhe); Guresh Turkmen wrestling competition; Alec Dulak game; Archery on horseback; the local game of hat jumpers; weightlifting; the traditional game of five stones; horse riding competitions of the Jalali clan; volleyball (the title of Asia’s volleyball capital for Urmia city), Miandoab cycling.

), data acquisition and preparation and developing selected criteria into a spatial dataset, criteria weighting and identifying the significance of each criteria in the decision model (

Table 2. Results of ANP’s supermatrix for the assessment.

Criteria	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)	(9)	(10)	(11)	(12)	…(28)	Weights
Rituals of the solar year (1)	0.027	0.163	0.069	0.046	0.141	0.062	0.089	0.049	0.094	0.087	0.028	0.022	0.067	0.0399
Rituals of the lunar year (2)	0.078	0.048	0.089	0.141	0.013	0.049	0.029	0.103	0.061	0.062	0.067	0.113	0.067	0.0354
Cultural and religious rituals (3)	0.047	0.088	0.021	0.046	0.045	0.096	0.061	0.053	0.051	0.038	0.051	0.037	0.042	0.0393
Special rituals and ceremonies (4)	0.086	0.034	0.042	0.028	0.047	0.042	0.054	0.030	0.053	0.039	0.038	0.060	0.020	0.0364
Oral literature (5)	0.071	0.031	0.067	0.036	0.038	0.054	0.046	0.032	0.029	0.031	0.124	0.117	0.122	0.0389
Dialects (6)	0.075	0.104	0.032	0.062	0.053	0.037	0.054	0.021	0.025	0.027	0.049	0.027	0.042	0.0368
Music (7)	0.041	0.031	0.145	0.054	0.061	0.084	0.034	0.058	0.093	0.142	0.026	0.056	0.036	0.0323
Dramatic dances (8)	0.074	0.041	0.027	0.137	0.089	0.053	0.097	0.052	0.032	0.055	0.055	0.055	0.062	0.0315
Knowledge of chronology and astronomy (9)	0.101	0.215	0.042	0.031	0.061	0.035	0.052	0.057	0.042	0.039	0.028	0.039	0.056	0.0295
Agricultural techniques (10)	0.019	0.034	0.056	0.065	0.062	0.045	0.025	0.06	0.048	0.028	0.039	0.028	0.045	0.0224
Livestock and poultry breeding techniques (11)	0.059	0.027	0.040	0.043	0.050	0.016	0.026	0.080	0.051	0.092	0.067	0.066	0.117	0.0282
General medicine (12)	0.023	0.282	0.079	0.032	0.050	0.055	0.052	0.038	0.040	0.064	0.067	0.083	0.027	0.0398
Native and traditional techniques (13)	0.027	0.264	0.018	0.036	0.098	0.018	0.046	0.089	0.051	0.044	0.067	0.052	0.056	0.0334
Handwoven fabrics (14)	0.036	0.237	0.088	0.043	0.017	0.059	0.015	0.037	0.029	0.036	0.038	0.017	0.059	0.0363
Metal works (15)	0.037	0.183	0.099	0.036	0.140	0.062	0.099	0.059	0.093	0.062	0.053	0.140	0.062	0.0345
Wooden works (16)	0.059	0.051	0.039	0.122	0.019	0.039	0.039	0.108	0.051	0.054	0.061	0.019	0.039	0.0362
Musical instruments (17)	0.047	0.038	0.062	0.042	0.040	0.099	0.062	0.033	0.056	0.026	0.080	0.040	0.099	0.0300
Enameling (18)	0.086	0.026	0.052	0.028	0.041	0.041	0.034	0.038	0.055	0.052	0.038	0.282	0.042	0.0367
Traditional embroidery (19)	0.061	0.013	0.057	0.039	0.039	0.057	0.040	0.027	0.039	0.046	0.089	0.264	0.028	0.0448
Other handicrafts (20)	0.075	0.144	0.034	0.055	0.051	0.039	0.050	0.049	0.028	0.013	0.057	0.237	0.039	0.0231
Special arts (21)	0.041	0.070	0.125	0.056	0.062	0.088	0.039	0.067	0.099	0.026	0.052	0.041	0.070	0.0431
Special local dishes (22)	0.066	0.044	0.027	0.117	0.099	0.055	0.099	0.067	0.039	0.013	0.057	0.057	0.044	0.0413
Special local snacks (23)	0.104	0.212	0.048	0.027	0.039	0.057	0.062	0.067	0.062	0.144	0.034	0.039	0.212	0.03
Local clothing (24)	0.237	0.088	0.043	0.017	0.059	0.015	0.037	0.029	0.036	0.038	0.027	0.117	0.099	0.0421
Local sports (25)	0.038	0.062	0.042	0.040	0.099	0.062	0.033	0.056	0.026	0.080	0.044	0.027	0.117	0.0391
local games (26)	0.088	0.043	0.017	0.059	0.108	0.051	0.054	0.061	0.019	0.098	0.018	0.046	0.089	0.0471
Historical capabilities (27)	0.062	0.042	0.040	0.099	0.034	0.055	0.051	0.039	0.050	0.027	0.137	0.089	0.051	0.0421
ecotourism capabilities (28)	0.041	0.027	0.137	0.089	0.053	0.097	0.058	0.093	0.142	0.026	0.027	0.039	0.046	0.0298

), analyzing the efficiency of criteria weights through sensitivity analysis (

Table 3. Results of global based sensitivity analysis for the criteria weights obtained from FANP.

Criteria	FANP Weights	S	ST	Criteria	FANP Weights	S	ST
Rituals of the solar year	0.0399	0.023	0.0392	Metal works	0.0345	0.0383	0.0321
Rituals of the lunar year	0.0354	0.0211	0.0331	Wooden works	0.0362	0.0221	0.0341
Cultural and religious rituals	0.0393	0.0521	0.0373	Musical instruments	0.0300	0.0288	0.03245
Special rituals and ceremonies	0.0364	0.0242	0.0364	Enameling	0.0367	0.0292	0.0321
Oral literature	0.0389	0.0391	0.0324	Traditional embroidery	0.0448	0.0334	0.0425
Dialects	0.0368	0.0304	0.0261	Other handicrafts	0.0231	0.0152	0.0242
Music	0.0323	0.0221	0.0293	Special arts	0.0331	0.0301	0.0345
Dramatic dances	0.0315	0.0210	0.0315	Special local dishes	0.0413	0.0421	0.0321
Knowledge of chronology and astronomy	0.0295	0.0215	0.0295	Special local snacks	0.03	0.0252	0.0327
Agricultural techniques	0.0224	0.0332	0.0241	Local clothing	0.0421	0.0333	0.0361
Livestock and poultry breeding techniques	0.0282	0.027	0.0231	Local sports	0.0391	0.0312	0.0345
General medicine	0.0398	0.0282	0.0341	local games	0.0471	0.0434	0.0379
Native and traditional techniques	0.0334	0.0363	0.0353	Historical capabilities	0.0421	0.0424	0.0335
Handwoven fabrics	0.0363	0.0249	0.0304	ecotourism capabilities	0.0298	0.0278	0.0253

), and data aggregation and developing a final map and analyzing results (Table 4). Figure 2 shows these major methodological steps of research implementation.

3.1. Data Preparation and Standardization

Based on the context of the study, a wide range of datasets were employed to carry out the research objective. For this goal, the list of intangible and domestic tourism activities in 387 counties located in the 33 provinces was used. Table 1 shows the major selected intangible tourism categories, including customs and events, traditions and oral manifestations, performing arts, knowledge, and techniques related to nature and the cosmos, traditional arts and crafts, food and cooking, local dress styles, and native and local sports and games. As this table also shows, each group also includes subcategories that were all collected and developed as a spatial dataset for the modeling task in this study. The selection of relevant criteria was based on previous related studies [7,9,12,13,25,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50] and discussions with experts and stakeholders. For this goal, initial data from the Iranian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism (IMC-HHT) were obtained. Figure 3, Figure 4 and Figure 5 show some selected intangible tourism attractions such as traditions, customs, events, foods, etc., in Iran to indicate the rich cultural heritage capability of the country.

After finalizing the list of relevant criteria, the data were essentially based on the annual report of each province reported by the IMC-HHT. Accordingly, we obtained the datasets based on the annual reports of each county and we added these statistics as an attribute table of the GIS file for future analysis. Accordingly, all editing, geometric correction, and topology implementation were applied and the datasets were developed in the form of GIS files. It has to be indicated that, as GIS-MCDA employs a number of heterogeneous criteria from different sources and evaluation scales (e.g., number, meters, degree, percent sources, etc.), standardization is a critical step for any MCDA implementation. Thus, the standardization process leads all heterogeneous evaluation scales to be standardized on the same scale for criterion evaluation and aggregation [51,52,53,54]. Essentially, this is a critical step in implementing GIS-MCDA, which leads to unifying the heterogeneous evaluation scales of the selected criteria. Thus, GIS-based technology requires an efficient standardization approach. In this context, several methods were proposed by previous studies, e.g., [54,55]) such as scale-based standardization and fuzzy membership functions.

Technically speaking, standardization leads users to automatically standardize an infinite number of criteria, whereas, previously, each criterion’s reclassification values had to be set independently. The quality of the decision-maker’s evaluation, which represents the knowledge, determines how accurately this standardization strategy is carried out [42]. The scale-based approach is the standardization of criteria, which entails scaling all input raster-based criteria selected by the user to the same scale (for example, 1–3, 1–5, 1–9, 0–1). In this method, for a scale of 1–9, lower scores (1 = very low suitability, 3 = low suitability) represent less suitable locations, 5 = medium suitability, and higher grades (7 = high suitability, 9 = very high suitability) describe areas that are more suitable for a given process. The intermediate values (2, 4, 6, and 8) also determine the interval values [42]. In this study, we employed a scale of 1–9 to indicate more details for analyzing the capability of each criterion. Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11 and Figure 12 represent the standardized version of the criteria for this study. As can be observed, we standardized all criteria on a scale of 1–9 based on the details of ITPA.

3.2. Criteria Weighting

Criteria weighting is considered the most critical step in GIS-MCDA as it determines the significance of each criterion individually as part of the decision model. So far, a variety of techniques such as analytical hierarchy process, analytical network process, fuzzy fuzz demiatle, fuzzy vikor, etc., were used in previous studies [7,25,33,36,55,56,57]. According to the literature review and previous research reports, an integrated approach of the fuzzy analytical network process (FANP) can be considered an efficient criterion weighting method [4,58]. Technically speaking, the FANP method is one of the most commonly used weighing criteria in GIS-MCDA for computing the criteria’s weights [59]. The integrated FANP method calculates the intrinsic weight of each criterion.

In the FANP approach, the pairwise comparison technique can be employed to rank the criteria and determine the criteria’s weights. According to Saaty [60], the FANP method’s pairwise comparison is performed by specialists and experts who rank the relative importance of the initial criteria on a scale of 1 to 9, with 1 indicating equal position, 2–4 expressing weakly higher relevance, 5–6 representing higher importance, and 7–9 expressing a strong and extremely higher importance of the criterion. Expert knowledge is considered in the initial ranking of the indicators to compute the criteria’s weights. In our study, the selected criteria for intangible tourism potential assessment (ITPA) that are listed in Table 1 and developed as spatial criteria (Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11 and Figure 12) were used as input for our GIS-MCDA-based model. Accordingly, in order to rank and obtain the significance of each criteria in the MCDA decision model, 20 experts in the domain of tourism and cultural heritage studies in the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism, as well as the tourism departments at the University of Tehran and the University of Tabriz, were asked to rank the indicators from 1 to 9 based on the importance of each indicator for the ITPA mapping.

Accordingly, the first ranks were used to create the FANP’s supermatrix. Finally, the reasonable consistency ratio of the criteria weights was computed, which is represented in Table 2. Technically, in the FANP approach and pairwise matrix, the computed criteria weights should be consistent, which can be evaluated via the consistency ratio (CR) as one of the pairwise matrix components. According to Saaty [60], a CR 0.1 represents an acceptable level of consistency, and any larger CR value indicates that the pairwise matrix should be recommended using new criteria ranks. It has to be indicated that the CR value is computed for all pairwise matrices as an independent index, which is in the range of 0 to 1, where 0 indicates very high consistency and 1 indicates a low level of consistency. In this study, we obtained a CR value of 0.08 as an acceptable CR value. However, in order to evaluate the robustness of the obtained criteria weights, we applied sensitivity analysis, as discussed in the next section.

3.3. Sensitivity Analysis

In the context of GIS-MCDA, it is well understood that uncertainty is associated with GIS-MCDA due to the variety of datasets, expert knowledge, and model errors [61,62]. Accordingly, such uncertainty impacts the outcome of MCDA and may lead to inaccurate results. In order to deal with these issues, sensitivity analysis can therefore assist in reducing ambiguity in MCDA and enhancing the consistency of its conclusions by means of applying any changes to certain input parameters and evaluating the outcomes [63]. Accordingly, the sensitivity analysis aims to evaluate the stability of the model’s output by altering the model’s inputs and observing the effects on the model’s output. In our study, we applied a sensitivity analysis to evaluate the uncertainty associated with the FANP’s weights for spatial modeling as an efficient approach to minimize the risk of error in the GIS-MCDA-based decision model.

In our study, we used an integrated method of Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) and a global sensitivity analysis (GSA) to assess the uncertainty of the criteria weights. For the sensitivity and uncertainty analysis of the GIS-MCDA uncertainty, the sample-based MCS in combination with GSA presents a trustworthy conclusion. According to Feizizadeh et al. [63], the degree of uncertainty surrounding attribute values and criterion weights can be observed as a probability distribution or a confidence interval. In order to ascertain the uncertain weights and recompute the criterion weights that face uncertainty, the weights produced via criteria weighting, such as FANP, can be used as the primary input of MCS-GSA. As a result, for the sensitivity analysis, we used the estimated weights from FANP in Table 2. Our integrated MCS-GSA consists of a number of steps to achieve this goal, including developing a random dataset as training data, using the FANP’s weights as reference weights, running the MCS-based simulation 10,000 times, and computing the spatial distribution of criteria weights’ uncertainty using the inverse weighted distance spatial interpolation technique. It has to be indicated that the MCS seeks to determine the highest, lowest, average, and standard deviation values for the reference weights used (for example, weights acquired from FANP). The GSA was applied to analyze the sensitivity of the criteria weights after receiving the MCS findings. The two key indices, S (first order) and St (total effect), are computed using GSA. The semantic weights of the FANP are technically represented by the S and St. Any variation in the magnitude and ranking of the S and St indices and in the reference weights (such as FANP’s weights) can be referred to in this context as the uncertainty associated with the criteria weights. It is obvious that utilizing the computed reference weights (like FANP) may provide erroneous results and must be recomputed if the S and St are significantly different. Table 3 shows the results of GSA for analyzing the sensitivity associated with the FANP weights as reference weights. As this table shows, the differences between the reference weights of FANP and first order (S) and the total effect (ST) are not that tangible, which indicates the robustness of the obtained FANP weights for our modeling.

3.4. Spatial Aggregation

Spatial aggregation is a critical step in GIS-MCDA implementation, which leads to combining the selected criteria based on their significance determined by using the criteria weighting method (e.g., FANP in our case). In this study, the computed weights were used to aggregate the spatial data of the selected criteria to develop the ITPA maps. Based on this technique, the geographical indications from one map layer are combined with the attribute (numerical) attributes of the other criteria. There are several efficient spatial aggregation methods, such as weighted overlay, fuzzy overlay, weighted sum, weighted liner combination, and ordered weighted average (OWA). Previous studies applied these methods and aimed to compare the efficiency of different aggregation methods, as in [38]. Many studies acknowledged the efficiency of the OWA for spatial aggregation and based on the literature review and suggestions from the previous studies, we used the OWA as an aggregation function to create the ITPA map, as in [4,55].

The OWA models the linguistically effective spatial aggregation method using the fuzzy decision rules. Between the minimum and the maximum, the OWA provides a parameterized class of multi-criteria aggregation operators [64]. For a given set of n criterion (attribute) maps, an OWA operator can be defined as the following function $\underset{ }{\mathrm{O}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{A}:{\mathrm{I}}^{\mathrm{n}}\to \mathrm{I}}$, where I = [0, 1] that is associated with a set of order weights V = [${\mathrm{v}}_{1,}{\mathrm{v}}_{2,}\dots ,{\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{n}}$] so that ${\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{j}}\mathsf{ϵ}[0,1]$ for j = 1, 2,…, n and ${\sum }_{\mathrm{j}=1}^{\mathrm{n}}=1{\mathrm{v}}^{\mathrm{j}}=1$ given a set of standardized criterion value ${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{i}}=[{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}1},{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}2},\dots ,{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}}]$ for I = 1, 2, …, m, where ${\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{j}}\mathsf{ϵ}[0,1]$ is associated with the location (e.g., cell, polygon, line, point); thus, the OWA operator is defined as follows:

$${\mathrm{O}\mathrm{W}\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{i}}=\left[{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}1},{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}2},\dots ,{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}}\right]={\sum }_{j=1}^{\mathrm{n}}{\mathrm{v}}_{\mathrm{j}}{\mathrm{z}}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{j}}$$

where ${\mathrm{z}\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}1}\ge {\mathrm{z}}_{\mathrm{i}2}\ge \dots \ge {\mathrm{z}}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}}$ is the sequence obtained by reordering the criterion values ${\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}1},{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}2},\dots ,{\mathrm{a}}_{\mathrm{i}\mathrm{n}}$. With different sets of order weights $\mathrm{V}$, one can generate a wide range of OWA operators, including a Boolean overlay combination, (“AND”) and (“OR”), by changing the set of order weights $\mathrm{V}$ [2010].

4. Results

This study was carried out using an integrated GIS-MCDA approach for intangible tourism potentiality assessment (ITPA). In the context of analyzing the significance of the criteria that were employed in our study, Table 3 shows that several criteria, such as rituals of the solar and lunar years, oral literature, cultural and religious rituals, special rituals and ceremonies, and dialects, are determined to be the most critical indicators for ICH mapping in Iran. As shown in Figure 6, some well-known counties, such as Yazd, Kerman, Mashhad, Shiraz, Hamadan, Zangan, and Iylam, are classified as having the highest potential for the rituals of the lunar year, while in terms of rituals of the solar year (Figure 6b), the highest potentiality is essentially observed in Tabriz, Shiraz, Isfahan, Kashan, and Mashhad counties. Based on the results presented in Table 3, for the criteria of special rituals and ceremonies, as indicated in Figure 6c, Malekan, Urmia, Yazd, and Zanjan are classified as highly potential counties. Figure 6d also presents the ranks for cultural and religious rituals, and as can be seen from this map, the Mashhad, Qum, Ardabil, and Zanjan counties are classified as highly ranked areas. In the context of oral literature, as Figure 7a shows, Urmia, Kashan, and Shiraz were pointed out to be the most highly ranked counties.

As we aimed to analyze the ICH potentiality of a country based on the aggregation of the selected criteria (Table 3 and Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8, Figure 9, Figure 10, Figure 11 and Figure 12), the final map was drawn based on the aggregation of all factors and their significance. Figure 13 presents the results of ITPA in Iran and Figure 14 and Figure 15 also show the enlarged resulting maps. The results also acknowledged the intensive capability of the country for a variety of ITPA programs and sustainable tourism development. The obtained results indicated the capability of each county for the ITPA. As the results indicated, the highest level of the ICH potentiality was found in Urmia, Khoy, Tabriz, Mashhad, Shiraz, Isfahan, Dezful, and Kashan. These cities are ranked based on the overall capability and contribution of the national ITPA. Based on the results, the second category of high potentiality includes the Ardabil, Khalkhal, Eqlid, Kerman, Bandar Abbas, Tekab, Sardasht, Zanjan, Ahar, Meshgin Shahr and Pars Abad counties, which are also well-known as famous tourist destination cities in Iran.

Table 4 shows the ranking of all 387 counties based on the obtained results. As this table shows, the vast majority of counties indicate moderate-to-high abilities. However, there are also specific differences based on the variety of traditions, customs, events, and religions, as well as languages and history. In the context of cultural heritage, the results show that Ardabil, Zanajan, Mashad, Yazad and Qom present high potential regarding religious events, customs, and traditions such as the Ashura and Ramadan traditions, etc. Based on the results, some areas such as Yazd, Hamdan, Tabriz, and Isfahan are highly ranked for their handcraft and products. In the context of food variety and quality, Tabriz, Ardabil and cities in the northern area (e.g., Rasht) indicate the highest potentiality from the tourism perspective. In the context of local clothes, the Kurdish states (e.g., Sannandaj, Kermanshah) and Charmahal Bakhtiarei were found to be highly potential areas. The results also indicated that some areas in the northern part of the country and particularly in the Gilan province, present a high potential for food and swannery, and can be considered for the objective of sustainable tourism development.

Table 4. Results of ITPA for the selected 387 counties in Iran. This table shows the intangible tourism potentiality in each area of Iran.

ITPA%	Counties in Iran
91–100	Tabriz, Urmia, Khoy, Dezful, Shiraz, Kashan, Mashhad and Isfahan
81–90	Ardabil, Khalkhal, Meshgin Shahr, Parsabad, Ahar, Maragheh Takab, Sardasht, Zanjan, Eqlid, Kerman, Bandar Abbas and Yazd
71–80	Neyriz, Qazvin, Bijar, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Gonbade Kavus, Astara, Rasht, Hamadan, Abadan, Ahvaz, Khorramshahr, Abhar, Abadeh, Arsanjan, Estahban, Bavanat, Jahrom, Khorrambid, Neyriz, Qazvin, Bijar, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Gonbade Kavus, Astara, Rasht, Hamadan, Darab, Firuzabad, Fasa, Larestan, Aran va Bidgol, Ardestan, Nain, Natanz, Azarshahr, Osku, Kaleybar, Bukan, Oshnavieh, Salmas, Mahabad, Naqadeh, Bushehr, Tehran, Birjand
61–70	Kowsar, Sareyn, Namin, Khansar, Shahin Shahr, Meymeh, Bostanabad, Bonab, Jolfa, Shabestar, Marand, Heris, Varzaqan, Qaen, Nehbandan, Bajestan, Dargaz, Quchan, Kalat, Nishapur, Chenaran, Gonabad, Shirvan, Omidiyeh, Andika, Andimeshk, Mahshahr, Behbahan, Ramhormoz, Shadegan, Shush, Shushtar, Haftkel, Khodabandeh, Tarom, Mahneshan, Zabol, Zahedan, Khonj, Rostam, Sepidan, Kazerun, Lamerd, Mamasani, Saqqez, Qaleh Ganj, Kahnuj, Kuhbanan, Manujan, Aqqala, Gorgan, Bandare Anzali, Rezvanshahr, Masal, Khorramabad, Juybar, Ramsar, Bastak, Bashagard, Bileh Savar, Rudbare Jonubi, Zarand
51–60	Sowme’eh Sara, Talesh, Borujerd, Babol, Behshahr, Tonekabon, Sari, Chalus, Galugah, Saveh, Abumusa, Bandar Lengeh, Qeshm, Malayer, Nahavand, Ardakan, Anar, Baft, Bardsir, Bam, Jiroft, Rabor, Rafsanjan, Sirjan, Fahraj, Kohgiluyeh, Maraveh Tappeh, Gomishan, Astanehye Ashrafiyeh, Rudsar, Siahkal, Shaft, Gotvand, Semnan, Iranshahr, Zehak, Zarrin Dasht, Sarvestan, Farashband, Qir and Karzin, Marvdasht, Mohr, Pasargad, Marivan, Jajarm, Maneh, Samalqan, Izeh, Baghe Malek, Bavi, Dashte Azadegan, Hendijan, Hoveyzeh, Germi, Khomeyni Shahr, Shahreza, Najafabad, Sarab, Mianeh, Hashtrud, Charuymaq, Shahin Dezh, Showt, Maku, Kangan, Shahrekord, Sarayan, Sarbisheh, Bardaskan, Khalilabad, Khoshab, Sabzevar, Sarakhs, Fariman, Kashmar, Esfarayen, Bojnord
41–50	Pole Dokhtar, Savadkuh, Qaem Shahr, Mahmudabad, Nur, Nowshahr, Neka, Jask, Khamir, Minab, Bahar, Asadabad, Nir, Masjed Soleyman Ijrud, Khorramdarreh, Khash, Grash, Buin Zahra, Takestan, Baneh, Ravar, Rigan, Shahre Babak, Anbarabad, Gachsaran, Azadshahr, Aliabad, Amlash, Rudbar, Fuman, Lahijan, Langarud, Ilam, Malekan, Miandoab, Poldasht, Piranshahr, Kuhrang, Lordegan, Darmian, Binaload, Taybad, Torbate Jam, Torbate Heydarieh, Joveyn, Khaf, Ramshir, Lali, Abarkuh, Borkhar Khur and Biabanak, Semirom, Lenjan, Chadegan,
31–40	Tiran and Karvan, Dehaqan, Faridan, Fereydunshahr, Falavarjan, Mobarakeh, Golpayegan, Karaj, Ajab Shir, Chaldoran, Chaypareh, Dashtestan, Boshruyeh, Ferdows, Bakharz, Torqabeh and Shandiz, Joghatai, Roshtkhar, Mahvelat, Faruj, Garmeh, Damghan, Dalgan, Zaboli, Saravan, Sarbaz, Sib and Suran, Nik Shahr, Hirmand, Qom, Kamyaran, Paveh, Bandare Gaz, Minudasht, Aligudarz, Kuhdasht, Amol, Babolsar, Abbasabad, Fereydunkenar, Arak, Tafresh
21–30	Kiar, Zeberkhan, Shahrud, Konarak, Chabahar, Abyek, Dehgolan, Divandarreh, Sarvabad, Ghorveh, Eslamabade Gharb, Salase Babajani, Javanrud, Ravansar, Sarpole Zahab, Sonqor, Gilane Gharb, Basht, Bahmai, Torkaman, Ramian, Sahneh, Qasre Shirin, Deyr, Ganaveh, Damavand, Ray, Shemiranat, Firuzkuh, Varamin, Borujen, Taleqan, Abdanan, Tangestan, Jam, Dashti, Kordkuy, Kalaleh, Azna, Delfan, Dorud, Selseleh, Khomeyn, Delijan, Komijan, Rudan, Sirik, Parsian, Razan, Famenin, Bafq
0–20	Savojbolagh, Nazarabad, Eyvan, Darreh Shahr, Dehloran, Shiravan, Malekshahi, Mehran, Deylam, Eslamshahr, Pakdasht, Robat Karim, Shahriar, Qods, Malard, Farsan, Mehdishahr, Garmsa, Kangavar, Harsin, BoyerAhmad, Dana, Charam, Galikash, Dowreh, Ashtian, Khondab, Zarandieh, Shazand, Mahallat, Behabad, Tabas, Mehriz, Meybod, Taft, Khatam, Sodogh and Ardal

Table 4. Results of ITPA for the selected 387 counties in Iran. This table shows the intangible tourism potentiality in each area of Iran.

ITPA%	Counties in Iran
91–100	Tabriz, Urmia, Khoy, Dezful, Shiraz, Kashan, Mashhad and Isfahan
81–90	Ardabil, Khalkhal, Meshgin Shahr, Parsabad, Ahar, Maragheh Takab, Sardasht, Zanjan, Eqlid, Kerman, Bandar Abbas and Yazd
71–80	Neyriz, Qazvin, Bijar, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Gonbade Kavus, Astara, Rasht, Hamadan, Abadan, Ahvaz, Khorramshahr, Abhar, Abadeh, Arsanjan, Estahban, Bavanat, Jahrom, Khorrambid, Neyriz, Qazvin, Bijar, Sanandaj, Kermanshah, Gonbade Kavus, Astara, Rasht, Hamadan, Darab, Firuzabad, Fasa, Larestan, Aran va Bidgol, Ardestan, Nain, Natanz, Azarshahr, Osku, Kaleybar, Bukan, Oshnavieh, Salmas, Mahabad, Naqadeh, Bushehr, Tehran, Birjand
61–70	Kowsar, Sareyn, Namin, Khansar, Shahin Shahr, Meymeh, Bostanabad, Bonab, Jolfa, Shabestar, Marand, Heris, Varzaqan, Qaen, Nehbandan, Bajestan, Dargaz, Quchan, Kalat, Nishapur, Chenaran, Gonabad, Shirvan, Omidiyeh, Andika, Andimeshk, Mahshahr, Behbahan, Ramhormoz, Shadegan, Shush, Shushtar, Haftkel, Khodabandeh, Tarom, Mahneshan, Zabol, Zahedan, Khonj, Rostam, Sepidan, Kazerun, Lamerd, Mamasani, Saqqez, Qaleh Ganj, Kahnuj, Kuhbanan, Manujan, Aqqala, Gorgan, Bandare Anzali, Rezvanshahr, Masal, Khorramabad, Juybar, Ramsar, Bastak, Bashagard, Bileh Savar, Rudbare Jonubi, Zarand
51–60	Sowme’eh Sara, Talesh, Borujerd, Babol, Behshahr, Tonekabon, Sari, Chalus, Galugah, Saveh, Abumusa, Bandar Lengeh, Qeshm, Malayer, Nahavand, Ardakan, Anar, Baft, Bardsir, Bam, Jiroft, Rabor, Rafsanjan, Sirjan, Fahraj, Kohgiluyeh, Maraveh Tappeh, Gomishan, Astanehye Ashrafiyeh, Rudsar, Siahkal, Shaft, Gotvand, Semnan, Iranshahr, Zehak, Zarrin Dasht, Sarvestan, Farashband, Qir and Karzin, Marvdasht, Mohr, Pasargad, Marivan, Jajarm, Maneh, Samalqan, Izeh, Baghe Malek, Bavi, Dashte Azadegan, Hendijan, Hoveyzeh, Germi, Khomeyni Shahr, Shahreza, Najafabad, Sarab, Mianeh, Hashtrud, Charuymaq, Shahin Dezh, Showt, Maku, Kangan, Shahrekord, Sarayan, Sarbisheh, Bardaskan, Khalilabad, Khoshab, Sabzevar, Sarakhs, Fariman, Kashmar, Esfarayen, Bojnord
41–50	Pole Dokhtar, Savadkuh, Qaem Shahr, Mahmudabad, Nur, Nowshahr, Neka, Jask, Khamir, Minab, Bahar, Asadabad, Nir, Masjed Soleyman Ijrud, Khorramdarreh, Khash, Grash, Buin Zahra, Takestan, Baneh, Ravar, Rigan, Shahre Babak, Anbarabad, Gachsaran, Azadshahr, Aliabad, Amlash, Rudbar, Fuman, Lahijan, Langarud, Ilam, Malekan, Miandoab, Poldasht, Piranshahr, Kuhrang, Lordegan, Darmian, Binaload, Taybad, Torbate Jam, Torbate Heydarieh, Joveyn, Khaf, Ramshir, Lali, Abarkuh, Borkhar Khur and Biabanak, Semirom, Lenjan, Chadegan,
31–40	Tiran and Karvan, Dehaqan, Faridan, Fereydunshahr, Falavarjan, Mobarakeh, Golpayegan, Karaj, Ajab Shir, Chaldoran, Chaypareh, Dashtestan, Boshruyeh, Ferdows, Bakharz, Torqabeh and Shandiz, Joghatai, Roshtkhar, Mahvelat, Faruj, Garmeh, Damghan, Dalgan, Zaboli, Saravan, Sarbaz, Sib and Suran, Nik Shahr, Hirmand, Qom, Kamyaran, Paveh, Bandare Gaz, Minudasht, Aligudarz, Kuhdasht, Amol, Babolsar, Abbasabad, Fereydunkenar, Arak, Tafresh
21–30	Kiar, Zeberkhan, Shahrud, Konarak, Chabahar, Abyek, Dehgolan, Divandarreh, Sarvabad, Ghorveh, Eslamabade Gharb, Salase Babajani, Javanrud, Ravansar, Sarpole Zahab, Sonqor, Gilane Gharb, Basht, Bahmai, Torkaman, Ramian, Sahneh, Qasre Shirin, Deyr, Ganaveh, Damavand, Ray, Shemiranat, Firuzkuh, Varamin, Borujen, Taleqan, Abdanan, Tangestan, Jam, Dashti, Kordkuy, Kalaleh, Azna, Delfan, Dorud, Selseleh, Khomeyn, Delijan, Komijan, Rudan, Sirik, Parsian, Razan, Famenin, Bafq
0–20	Savojbolagh, Nazarabad, Eyvan, Darreh Shahr, Dehloran, Shiravan, Malekshahi, Mehran, Deylam, Eslamshahr, Pakdasht, Robat Karim, Shahriar, Qods, Malard, Farsan, Mehdishahr, Garmsa, Kangavar, Harsin, BoyerAhmad, Dana, Charam, Galikash, Dowreh, Ashtian, Khondab, Zarandieh, Shazand, Mahallat, Behabad, Tabas, Mehriz, Meybod, Taft, Khatam, Sodogh and Ardal

5. Discussion

As discussed in the earlier sections, the objective of this study was to map and determine the capability of different counties in Iran for intangible and cultural tourism. The results of this study indicated that there is a very high possibility for intangible and cultural tourism and heritage in different parts of the country. Based on the results, some well-known counties (e.g., Tabriz, Urmia, Isfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, and Tehran) present a very high capability for cultural tourism. Detailed results also indicated that some events, such as Nowruz Eve, Ramadan, and Eid Ghorban, are well distributed nationwide and can be observed in most counties. However, the results indicated that most of the cultural and intangible traditions and events are based on the local traditions and customs and this makes the country a rich cultural heritage with intensive capability for sustainable heritage tourism programs.

According to the results, the potential for international tourism development based on an enormous and significant intangible and cultural heritage capability is obvious in Iran. Archaeological tourism, cultural heritage and ecotourism play important roles in themed areas. It is worth noting, in the framework of cultural tourism, the possibility of producing particularly distinctive and appealing products, such as the so-called nomad tours. Tour operators currently provide the option to participate in the daily traditional activities of Qashqai and Bakhtiari nomads. Nonetheless, a variety of other aspects may significantly contribute to developing other forms of tourism in Iran. For example, the country’s ongoing efforts to promote economic relations with the rest of the world constitute a significant opportunity for the development of joint collaboration, incentives, meetings, conferences and joint tourism events. On the other hand, the country’s morphology is critical to the development of other tourism forms, such as sport tourism. For this goal, a considerable number of well-known high peaks (e.g., Damavand 6611 m, Sablan, 4811, and many others over 4000 m) in the two main mountain ranges of Alborz and Zagros, together with another large number of caves (such as Alisdars, Katalkhor), might be considered significant. It might also be critical that the sociocultural frameworks of nomadic cultures in most counties are currently being affected by intensive growth on social media and other causes such as globalization, nomads, and nomadic lifestyles. However, the situation seems to be a bit different in Iran based on its rich tradition, long history, international connections and social changes. Thus, ICH makes Iran a suitable destination where cultural and heritage tourism can be efficiently developed [40].

It is already well known that Iran is one of the world’s most important heritage locations with significant compatibility for sustainable tourism development [36]. The richness of Persia’s cultural legacy is a result of the diversity of the natural environment and how it has been enriched through time, as well as foreign migration to the country and invasions of it throughout history. In addition, the location on the Silk Road and the level of trade and foreign interaction are also other factors in the country’s outstanding cultural capability. A tangible cultural legacy is just as significant as intangible cultural heritage. For example, food production and cooking reflect history in its manufacturing procedures. Other intangible manifestations of cultural heritage such as Nowruz (ancient Iranian New Year), religious celebrations (e.g., Ta’ziyeare), Naqqali (an Iranian art of dramatic storytelling), local music, and ritual dramatic art are only some of the well-known examples of the vast intangible cultural heritage that are listed as part of the Iranian Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO [14]. As previous studies, e.g., [36,40], also proposed, these are known as a priceless source of ideas about the extinction of cultural tourism products.

As a result, in these areas, heritage tourism and art tourism are being promoted as kinds of historical tourism. Tourists may be drawn to destinations linked to Persian authors or locations depicted in their books because of their literary legacy, which is also addressed by previous studies [40,45]. Shiraz, Isfahan, and Khorasan are other cities to consider for Persian literary heritage. Based on the rich history of traditional medicine sciences and methods developed by well-known experts (e.g., Avicenna), the country has enormous potential to market traditional medicine as a consumer product and an intangible cultural legacy for domestic use. As a result, Iran has a lot of room to promote herbal-medicine-based specialty tourism [45]. Some cities such as Tabriz, Isfahan, and Rasht (a creative city of gastronomy and art) were named as part of the UNESCO Creative Cities network. Essentially, tourists can obtain experience and expertise in the domains of gastronomy and art in these cities, which are recognized as creative tourism destinations [40]. Religion shapes and influences human behaviors, civilizations, and customs. For example, it is clear that religious disparities in lifestyles and habits, such as eating and drinking, are common. Iran’s sociocultural setting should be regarded as one of the most crucial causes of the country’s tourist growth stall [65].

Previous studies, e.g., [36,37,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,57,66,67,68,69], also point out that the country is suitable for developing folk music and local dances because it is home to a variety of ethnic groups, including Lurs, Kurds, Turkic, Bakhtiari, Arabs, Baloch, etc. These attractions would persuade tourists to choose the nation as a music tourism destination. In this context, our result indicated that Iran’s national heritage is made up of artistic, historical, architectural, archaeological, cultural, environmental, archival, librarian, and other resources. It is acknowledged that the richness of cultural heritage and the great number of heritage sites leads us to the conclusion that Iran has remarkable potential as a heritage destination that can be employed as an essential part of the country’s tourism branding and marketing. Obviously, institutional interest in these resources must also be considered and employed toward their conservation, safeguarding, and enhancement. They symbolize the history and ideals passed down through the ages as the socioeconomic capital of a community or nation [40]. There are numerous ways to enhance public awareness of the relevance of these resources for cultural, social, and economic development. Local community involvement in tourism development is a recent trend in territorial administration [45]. In this context, it is acknowledged that the ‘symbolic economy’ of cities has been fueled by the increase in cultural consumption (of art, fashion, music, history, etc.) and the companies that cater to it. Nowadays, a city’s appeal is determined by its current material assets as well as a number of experiences centered on those assets, typically encompassing the ‘living culture’ and the local vibe [68].

It is well understood that the development of local communities is the first step in light of sustainable development between tourism development and the well-being of local populations. However, Iran seems to have prevented the growth of tourism inside its indigenous communities by using strong central authority and control and by presenting a robust nationwide image. For example, Donato and Lohrasbi [44] discovered a lack of interaction among the local people in the process of tourism development and cultural heritage management in the Takht-e Soleyman World Heritage Site. The same study discovered a strong desire for contribution on the side of hosting communities, together with a strong understanding of the cultural and ecological worth of their location.

In the context of novel tourist concepts such as sustainable tourism, fair trade tourism, pro-poor tourism, and community-based tourism, it demonstrates significant capabilities that must be taken into account. Attempts to involve locals in tourism development are, admittedly, floundering due to nebulous and imprecise insights of the community, but local communities are known as the basic purpose for tourists who aim to experience the lifestyle and engage with the material products of different communities. As previously stated, some cities have already been designated as creative, providing an opportunity to engage local populations and tourists in tourism activities while also enhancing their creative potential through active engagement. In the context of sustainable development, it is also acknowledged that territorial governance and national strategies must be developed based on the efficient contribution of local communities. This leads to ensuring a balance between the consumption and reproduction of local collective resources by highlighting the significant participation of local communities and encouraging active participation from a variety of agents at the local, national, and international levels [40,43]. For this goal, collaboration with other creative tourist areas (e.g., cities, counties, etc.) across the world in the fields of gastronomy and handicrafts to participate in cultural exchanges is another method for the growth of legacy tourism. This leads the local artists towards the standardization of handicrafts in order to prohibit the selling of low-quality or fake gifts to tourists. A close examination of the Iranian scenario reveals a complicated situation full of opportunities and threats.

Despite Iran’s unique position on the global tourism map, the country’s tourism share in terms of international visitors and earnings is almost insignificant. Iran’s policies are rarely based on the nature of tourism and existing patterns, and they are primarily influenced by sociocultural elements, particularly its political economy. To comprehend tourism policy, one must first understand the government, Iranian society, and the nature of their evolution. Thus, only an analysis of Iran’s economic, political, and administrative systems can offer the necessary context. Tourists in Iran and Iranian tourist policies are the result of the country’s political economy rather than deliberate design. The emphasis on adherence to domestic social standards, as well as the obligation of inbound tourists to follow these rules, has resulted in a contraction of its markets. Iran’s current tourist proportion is as low as 1/800th of the globalized tourism business [65]. It is well understood that the international political issues might impact the development of sustainable tourism. Based on the current political issues, international tourism in Iran could also be fostered as a tool for cultural diplomacy, with a focus on cultural legacy (tangible and intangible) and authenticity. This is one of the country’s major challenges over the past decades, as has been addressed in previous studies.

6. Conclusions and Future Work

The significance of the tourism industry is obvious and it is well understood that the tourism industry could significantly benefit the economy of local communities. The results of this study indicated that Iran has indeed a remarkable ICH capability that can be used as the basis of sustainable development. From a methodological perspective, the results of this study pointed out that the geospatial approach, particularly integrated GIS-MCDA, could also be considered an effective approach for analyzing and mapping tourism capabilities. In this context, it has to be acknowledged that the GIS-MCDA leads to the consideration of the tourism capability features (e.g., tradition, customs, events, etc.) as casual and relevant criteria and evaluation of their interaction and integration for tourism development. It also has to be concluded that GIS-MCDA is indeed an effective framework for mapping and analyzing tourism capabilities. However, due to the variety of data resources, uncertainty was also found to be inevitable in GIS-MCDA-based modeling. It is true that applying sensitivity and uncertainty analysis methods leads to an improved accuracy of the results; however, newly developed methods such as machine learning algorithms, and particularly deep learning, might further improve the efficiency of GIS-MCDA methods, which is included as part of our future study. Within this study, it was found that the lack of international frameworks for ICH might be a serious challenge for analyzing its cultural and heritage capabilities. In addition, it also has to be indicated that, due to the variety of resources in ICH studies, limitations and access to the correct dataset might be challenges that many similar studies face as well.

From an application perspective, we conclude that the results of this study are critical to indicate the aggregated ITPA as an intangible tourism capability in different part of Iran. The information obtained from this study leads local stakeholders, decision-makers, and authorities to identify the potentiality of each area and consider developing sustainable tourism programs. In addition, the obtained information will also support readers, international travelers, and tourism agencies to understand the potentiality of each area and develop intangible tourism programs and tours. It must also be pointed out that currently, due to international sanctions and political issues, it seems that the development and extension of a tourism program might be a challenge that must be taken into account by authorities and decision-makers.