The role of the quality of the environment of Opal shopping center in Tehran on the attraction of urban tourists

Subject Areas : Urban planning

esmaeil nasiri hendehkhaleh ^{1 *} , mansor rezaali ² , maryam alizadej zenooz ³ , amir hoshang rajabi ⁴

1 - DR.esmaeil nasiri hendehkhaleh ,Associate Professor, Department of of Urban Planning, ،faculty of Architecture and Art ، University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran
2 - دانش اموخته دکتری جغرافیا وبرنامه ریزی شهری دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران..
3 - دانشجو دکتری گروه جغرافیا و برنامه ریزی شهری ، دانشگاه تبریز تبریز، ایران.
4 - کارشناس ارشد جغرافیا وبرنامه ریزی شهری دانشگاه پیام نور تهران ایران

Received: 2024-02-01 Accepted : 2024-04-24 Published : 2025-04-17

Keywords: shopping centers, environment quality, attracting tourists, opal shopping center,

Abstract :

Abstract At the present time, tourism has become one of the most important sources of income, employment and development of social and cultural infrastructure, and it has become comprehensive and global, and it has appropriated all aspects of people's lives in urban areas (Christou & Sharpley, 2019: 39). Urban tourism, like any activity, requires the existence of components and conditions to develop in its context (Guysoy, 2002:77). The urban tourism structure of an urban place includes factors that can provide more motivation for the tourism demand of that place (Akbarian, Ramzanzadeh, 2014: 202). Shopping centers first started in America in 1950, and after that they became popular in European cities as well (Babin, 1995: 63). Today, shopping centers in commercial complexes are no longer just a place for transactions (Abaza, 2001: 483). Shopping centers, on the one hand, are part of the daily life of society (Kazemi, 2009:16). The city of Tehran is considered as one of the cities that attract tourists, which attracts tourists from inside or even outside the country in all seasons of the year according to the existing potential. This city has many capabilities to attract urban tourism. One of these places is the Opal shopping center, which is considered the largest shopping center in the northwest of Tehran. This center is located in the two municipalities of Tehran and Saadat Abad.This city has many capabilities to attract urban tourism. One of these places is the Opal shopping center, which is considered the largest shopping center in the northwest of Tehran. This center is located in the two municipalities of Tehran and Saadat Abad

 

Extended Abstract

 

Introduction

At the present time, tourism has become one of the most important sources of income, employment and development of social and cultural infrastructure, and it has become comprehensive and global, and it has appropriated all aspects of people's lives in urban areas (Christou & Sharpley, 2019: 39) Tourism is a product of the current society and born of the industrial revolution (Jehani, 2016: 38). And it is one of the most important and outstanding communication, social and cultural factors in the world (Farahani et al., 2017: 21). Currently, tourism It has become one of the most important components of the development of economic well-being in most countries (Mansouri Moayed and Yavari Gohar, 2017).

The quality of the environment is one of the basic concepts in the field of tourism. The quality of the environment is an indicator for measuring the amount of tourist attraction in urban spaces. The quality of the environment is obtained from the quality of the components of a certain area. Spatial environment, which shows the level of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of citizens with the urban environment (Shamaei, Poorahmad, 2005:27) The city of Tehran is considered as one of the cities that attracts tourists, which attracts tourists from inside or even outside the country in all seasons of the year according to the existing potential. This city has many capabilities to attract urban tourism. The city of Tehran has always been of great interest due to its stylish and large shopping malls, and many people travel to the capital to shop in Tehran's shopping malls. One of these places is the Opal shopping center, which is considered the largest shopping center in the northwest of Tehran. This center is located in the two municipalities of Tehran and Saadat Abad. Opal Mall is not just a shopping mall. In addition to stores and boutiques, Opal Passage also has a variety of entertainment facilities. Food court, restaurant, coffee shop, Opal cinema, Opal bowling and amusement park... Opal is the largest commercial, shopping and entertainment center in the northwest of the capital and is also considered one of Tehran's attractions.

 

Methodology

The research method is descriptive according to the subject and it is practical in terms of the goal. In terms of data collection, it is descriptive research, regression analysis and SPSS software. In order to have the normality of the data distribution, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used. The statistical population of the research includes people who have visited Opal shopping center for tourism and shopping. Sampling method was done by random method. So that 384 questionnaires based on Cochran's formula were distributed among the visitors of the shopping center. To determine the content validity of the questionnaire, the point of view of experts and professors and experts in the field of urban tourism was used. Using Cronbach's alpha method, the reliability of the questionnaire was checked..

 

Results and discussion

In this part of the research, in order to verify the acceptability of the measurement indices on hidden variables, factor analysis has been used. This method examines the relationship between written and observed variables. In this research, the items that had a weak factor load were excluded from the measurement. The variable factor analysis of environment quality has been evaluated in the form of 9 indicators of space form, permeability, readability of activity pattern, variety of uses, furniture and information elements, visual quality and scenic beauty of access to parking, safety and comfort, accessibility.

It can be said that the diversity of uses, with an impact factor of 0.879, and the visual quality and beauty of the shopping center with an impact factor of 0.846, as well as the accessibility subscale with an impact factor of 0.823, respectively, are the most important among the components. environmental quality and influence on urban tourist attraction

 

Conclusion

The results show that among the indicators of the quality of the environment, the variety of uses of the shopping center, as well as the index of visual quality and the beauty of the landscape, had the most impact on the attraction of urban tourists. In other words, 60.3% of the changes in the attraction of urban tourists are predicted by the existing uses in the shopping center, as well as the visual quality and beauty of the landscape, and it is significant at the 95% confidence level. Therefore, the significance level of the path is less than 0.50 (P = 0.0001 > 0.05) and it can be concluded that the diversity of uses in the shopping center has a significant impact on the attraction of urban tourists directly.

The state of resilience of Tabriz city against the risk of earthquake is in a conservative position and it should be planned and improved by reducing the weak points and taking advantage of the opportunities; In this regard, the following strategies are suggested.

 

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