Sustainable tourism development in historic cities of arid regions with the revival of Qanat (Yazd City)

Abstract

Qanat is one of the cultural and geological attractions in arid regions. Iran's Qanat has become the 20th UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. Since the Qanat is a cultural, historical, and ecological heritage in addition to its tectonic features, it can include geotourism and, it offers potentials in planning sustainable tourism. Therefore qanat tourism with emphasis sustainable tourism can cause conservation and regeneration of this local capacity. This research has been conducted with the aim of investigating the capabilities of qanats in Yazd from different aspects of tourism. Yazd city was registered as the World heritage city at UNESCO in 2017. According to the hydrologic and tourism experts, the Delphi model has been used, and the SWOT matrix has been formed. According to the AHP model, the results indicate the importance of the strengths and opportunities of the qanat of tourism in this city. The top strategies for tourism boom include investment, the participation of indigenous people, and the creation of museums and Qanatel in qanats.