Investigating Potentials and Limitations of Iran Tourism Branding in Comparison with the Middle Eastern Countries

Considering the significance of the tourism industry at the international level, many countries are trying to improve their competitive position and subsequently the quality of their public life by proper planning and earning more revenues from the industry. Therefore, this study sought to investigate the potentials and limitations of Iran's tourism branding in comparison with the Middle Eastern countries, using the data collected from administering a questionnaire from 2019 to 2020. The collected data were then analyzed via Meta-SWOT and Morphol models. The findings of the study revealed that Iran had obtained 3 points out of 5 possible points in terms of the tourism attraction index. In this regard, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia possess the highest ranking, obtaining scores of 3.80, 3.30, and 3.20, respectively. However, Syria and Iraq are ranked at the lowest level, being scored 2 and 2.20, respectively. In terms of the income generation index, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia each are placed at the top of the ranking by gaining a score of 3.30, and Syria and Iraq are ranked the lowest, with their scores being 2.90 and 2.80, respectively. Generally, the results indicated that Iran's tourism branding has an unstable status compared to other Middle Eastern countries and that it needs to basically change its strategy in this regard.