Investigating the impacts of Urban tourism development on sustainable urban development : A case study of Marivan city

Tourism is one of the important activities with economic, social and environmental consequences in cities. Tourism development policy is an approach whith which the city can maximize its benefits while minimizing the negative impacts. Cities have many tourist attractions and they always attract many tourists. Therefore, sustainable urban tourism development and its wise management requires planning. The city of Marivan, due to its climatic conditions and specific cultural factor, has great power in attracting urban tourism. This descriptive study seeks to investigate the positive impacts of urban tourism on three variables of sustainable urban development (social, environmental and economic) from the perspective of 250 residents of Marivan (based on Cochran formula) and 18 professors, managers, and experts in tourism in Marivan. The findings indicate that urban tourism in Marivan has made Marivan more sustainable in an effective way and It have the greatest impact on sustainable economic development and the least impact on sustainable environmental development.

Keywords:

Urban Tourism , Sustainable Development , Economical Development , Social Development , Environmental Development.