Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
2
MSc in Geography and Tourism Planning, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/jitor.2026.2088466.1049
Abstract
This study aims to systematically analyze the challenges of and barriers to urban tourism development in the context of climate change and to identify the requirements for effective intervention. Focusing on Hamadan as a historical-mountainous destination, this qualitative study employed the systematic grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin) to explore why and how a “vicious cycle” emerges within the tourism system. The required data were collected through 35 in-depth interviews with a diverse range of key stakeholders, which were then analyzed using MAXQDA. The findings of the study indicated that the current crisis resulted from the mutual and escalating interaction of three main groups of factors: (1) intensifying climate hazards (declining snowfall, drought, and flash floods); (2) pressures arising from unsustainable past development patterns (unregulated construction and mass tourism); and (3) deep-rooted institutional, structural, and social weaknesses (inter-agency fragmentation, reactive policies, and institutional distrust). The study’s principal contribution is a “vicious cycle” model explaining how these factors reinforce one another: climate hazards expose the vulnerabilities created by unsustainable development, and institutional weaknesses subsequently undermine the system’s capacity to respond effectively, themselves becoming a barrier to correcting unsustainable patterns. The study concludes that the main threat to the sustainability of tourism in Hamadan is not climate hazards alone but “institutional unsustainability” and the “erosion of social capital,” which emerge as the most critical points of intervention. Accordingly, prioritizing institutional measures (coordination, transparency, and accountability) is proposed as an analytical prerequisite for any effective strategy to break out of the vicious cycle.
Keywords