An Analysis of the Role of Lifestyle in Urban Tourism Sustainable Development (Case Study: Esfahan City)

Since urban space is one of the important places that tourism takes place, in order to create stability in tourism, the interaction between tourism planning and urban sustainable development should be investigated with regard to cultural elements. Lifestyle is derived from culture as a social phenomenon and affects it and is a reflection of human thoughts in relation with behavior, ethics and culture. Therefore, this aim of this research is to investigate the role of lifestyle in urban tourism sustainable development in Esfahan city, the third most populous city in Iran. This research’s goal is Practical and developmental and about the origin and method, it is descriptive, analytical and casual that has been done in a field research method. The statistical populations of this research are- tourism custodians, tourism experts, national tourists who have travelled to Esfahan city and local residents of all 15 municipal districts of the city. Simple random sampling method was utilized and 838 questionnaires were gathered from 4 statistical populations. In order to analyze the data, factor analysis test was utilized by smart PLS software. The results show that there are meaningful connections among the variables “lifestyle†, “sustainable development†and “urban tourism†. The most frequent factor that was selected by respondents for the concept of lifestyle in the statistical population was sociocultural factor (such as- visiting relatives and friends and attending soirees, traditional foods and drinks festivals, the desirability of Esfahan city in order to spend leisure time, the willingness toward group entertainment). For the concept “urban tourism†, all the populations chose urban texture significantly (such as- revival of workshops for producing traditional clothes, hand-made attractions, systematizing historical areas, developing sidewalk routes, constructing modern entertaining centers and systematizing landscapes and providing equipment for parks). About the sustainable development and its multi-dimensional nature, however, different factors were selected by respondents which in order of importance and frequency are economic, environmental, urban management, sociocultural, urban texture and political factors. Among the recommendations, a few can be stated- arranging cultural plans with a focus on soiree and elders’ reunions, holding traditional and religious festivals in different parts of the city, improving the condition of the existing theme parks and diversifying leisure and entertainment facilities of Esfahan city and pitching in municipal management and being parallel with plans of different organization in city. Especially by mayoralty as a trustee for city and cultural heritage could be mentioned as a tourism trustee.