The study of French perception on Iran towards a tourism development policy1

Despite the cultural and geographical potential of Iran, this country gives more tourists than it receives. The number of foreign tourists – including French - coming to this country is low. Why a few number of French tourists travel to Iran? Does the cause relate to the lack of supply of various tourism products or to the image of the country? In order to answer to the aforementioned questions, we raise the question of the social representation of Iran to the French in order to implement a policy that promotes the tourism development. This study is of particular interest since even if the tourism in Iran is currently still far behind its nearest neighbors (in particular Turkey), its nowadays ambition is to rehabilitate the tourism sector. To address this problem, we collected information by preparing a closed questionnaire of 12 questions. The construction of this closed questionnaire is essentially based on the theory of social representations. Then, this questionnaire was given to a representative sample composed of 120 students randomly selected from the University Paris 5. Based on the outcomes of this research, we can conclude that Iran could attract more tourists, especially French ones, to the Persian lands if, on one hand, this country improves its relations with the world and, in the other hand, if it looks better in the eyes of French by increasing their knowledge and information about Iran. The election of the new moderate president Hassan Rouhani and his policy of détente can be considered as a positive element in improving the attraction of French tourists to Iran.

Keywords:

Tourism development , Image and perception , Social representation , Iran , France