Creative Tourism in Modern Heritage Regeneration;The Case of Rasht Municipality Square

In recent decades, modern architecture, as an example of cultural heritage, has attracted the attention of cultural and creative tourists and has led to economic prosperity and cultural development. Accordingly, ample consideration of heritage-based regeneration is needed in urban planning policies. Based on the empirical study and a qualitative method, this paper attempts to examine the main impacts of creative tourism on the regeneration process of modern heritages in the city core of Rasht, regarding the expansion of cultural and creative industries’ discourse. The investigation includes several interviews and a questionnaire with visitors and marketers of Rasht Municipality Square’s district. This paper evaluates the impacts of tourism on culture and vice versa in three aspects: physical/environmental impacts, economic impacts, and socio-cultural impacts. Despite the negative consequences of the tourism industry, the results of the research indicated that regenerating cultural heritage sites, due to creative tourism needs, can increase economic affluence, cultural employment, and social vitality. This will lead to an increase in the residents’ health and quality-of-life. As regard to the newness of debates in the field of cultural and creative industries in Iran, this research is among the few papers concerning creative tourism and heritages, specifically modern heritages in a creative city context

Keywords:

creative tourism , cultural tourism , creative experience , modern heritage , cultural regeneration