Investigating the relationship between the factors affecting the buying behavior of tourists' handicrafts and the amount of buying handicrafts in Isfahan

Master's Thesis in Cultural Entrepreneurship

Abstract:

Shopping, especially buying souvenirs and handicrafts, is one of the most important activities of tourists during their travels. Souvenirs purchased from the destination make the travel experience a material and tangible experience for tourists. The purpose of the current research, which was carried out using a descriptive-analytical and survey method, was to investigate the relationship between the demographic characteristics of tourists (age, education, income) and the type of travel and the number of travel companions with the amount of handicrafts purchased, as well as identifying and prioritizing the popular handicrafts of foreign tourists visiting Isfahan and the characteristics of their favorite handicrafts. The population of this study included foreign tourists visiting the handicrafts market of Naqsh Jahan Square in Isfahan during the research period. The selected sample size was 384 foreign tourists according to the sampling table of Karjesi and Morgan. Therefore, the same number of questionnaires (made by the researcher) were distributed among foreign tourists in the market of Naqsh Jahan Square in Isfahan, and from this amount, 328 questionnaires were usable for analysis. In order to check the importance of handicraft characteristics from the point of view of tourists, one-sample t-test was used, and to test research hypotheses, Kendall's tau test and Kramer's test were used. The results of the research hypotheses test showed that there is a significant relationship between the demographic characteristics of tourists (age, education, income) and the amount of handicrafts purchased, but no significant relationship was found between the type of trip and the number of travel companions with the amount of handicrafts purchased. In addition, it was found that the most selling items of handicrafts in Isfahan were miniatures (paintings), ceramic works, traditional fabrics (such as Kalamkar cloth and cashmere), and carpets.  Also, when buying handicrafts, tourists attach more than average importance to features such as having a beautiful design, being handmade, not having many copies, being innovative, easy to transport, reflecting the native culture of the destination, price, buying directly from the manufacturer, not being available in the tourists' country, and having authenticity compared to other features studied in this research.

Key words:

Foreign tourists, buying handicrafts, marketing Tourism, the city of Isfahan, cultural entrepreneurship

Chapter 1

Overview of the research

1-1- Introduction

The mutual influence between handicrafts and tourism is not hidden from most researchers because handicrafts can be one of the effective factors in attracting tourists and the tourism industry in the growth, development and expansion of handicrafts, maintaining Originality and improvement of its quality will be effective. Handicrafts can play a vital role in economic development, especially considering the impact of smaller enterprises. This effect is facilitated, for example, through its connection with the tourism industry and the role it plays in the development of creative and cultural industries, as well as through entrepreneurial efforts in the rural economy. The handicraft sector is a source of creativity and innovation, and those who are active in this sector display many entrepreneurial characteristics of creating ideas, recognizing opportunities, taking risks, considering product design and in relation to business decisions. Apart from those handicraft companies that have adopted the mass production method and therefore no longer have a serious basis for handicrafts, the majority of handicraft businesses are micro and small companies. The three heritage words "cultural", "tourism" and "handicrafts" are among the concepts that are generally placed together. Handicrafts can be considered as one of the branches of cultural heritage and creative industries (Keighbadi et al., 2017: 30). It is possible to use these three words at the same time when we want to convey cultural and informative concepts and messages through tourism. The category of cultural tourism, which is raised next to mere tourism, considers cultural awareness as one of its most important approaches. Among the main axes of cultural tourism are things such as visiting cultural and historical attractions, getting to know customs, visiting exhibitions and museums, handicrafts and culture of different ethnic groups, and discussing cultural attractions in general. It should be noted that destinations introduce themselves through various cultural factors such as souvenirs, handicrafts, entertainment, architecture, history, art and other features of lifestyles, and these cultural attractions are part of the attractions of developing countries.Cultural attractions create tourism flows, so they provide an opportunity for the local community to interact with tourists and earn money through them. Festivals, souvenirs, traditional dances, local foods, etc. are all part of cultural attractions. One of the factors that make travel profitable for tourism purposes is shopping, especially the purchase of handicrafts by tourists. This action is considered so important that handicrafts are sometimes considered a branch of cultural tourism.

To make the topic and how to do the work clearer, providing the research plan is the most basic stage of the research, and it is also called the research orientation stage. Due to the fact that in every research, the detailed knowledge of the research elements, including the research problem, the importance and necessity of the research topic, the research objectives, the research method, the assumptions, the spatial domain, the temporal domain, the data collection tool and the data analysis method and the definition of the research terms are of particular importance and are the basis and focus of the study. At the beginning of this research, we tried to express these things. Products fall more into the realm of services, and this is a factor that makes their marketing more complex and difficult to study. But some products of this industry, including souvenirs and handicrafts, are tangible goods and it is possible to study them better. However, not enough research has been done yet. Handicrafts are one of the most important economic and cultural activities related to tourism. With the arrival of a tourist in the country, economic income is created and the injected money is effective not once, but several times in the revival and revitalization of the country's economy due to the multiplier effect [1] (Farzin, 1389: 251). Due to the expenses that tourists spend at the destination, tourism is also called invisible export (Shams, 2011). Through the purchase of handicrafts, the thought, thought and culture of one nation is transferred to another country. Therefore, what is exported is the culture of the destination country. Tourists get to know the cultural elements of the destination through handicrafts, observing the customs and daily life of the people of the destination and participating in festivals. Due to having a rich culture with a history of several thousand years, Iran has wide resources in the field of cultural tourism and handicrafts, but the abundance and diversity of these resources and comparing them with the statistics of incoming tourists as well as indicators of the competitiveness of tourism and handicrafts in the world market indicate that we need a new look at the country's handicrafts market. Despite the diversity of handicrafts in the country and the special beauty and elegance used in their production, there are obstacles in the way of marketing these products, so that competing countries (China, India, Thailand, etc.) with proper planning and understanding of the market have been able to capture a significant amount of the world markets of this industry. One of the problems in the effective marketing of crafts is not paying attention to consumer tastes. It should be noted that the sensitivity of this issue is how to establish a proper balance between preserving the cultural authenticity of handicrafts and the demands and tastes of tourists. Finding the answer to this question requires comprehensive research, and in this way, identifying the buying behavior of handicrafts by tourists can be useful.

This research identified the handicrafts that foreign tourists like in Isfahan and the characteristics that made them popular, in addition, the presence or absence of a significant relationship between demographic variables (age, education, income), the type of travel and the number of travel companions with the amount of handicrafts purchase were investigated. In this way, it is possible to take steps in the field of handicrafts by emphasizing the preservation of authenticity and cultural elements and the quality of these products towards better segmentation of the target market, advertising and marketing, creating needs and increasing demand for them, and in this way increase the country's share both in the cultural exchanges resulting from the purchase of handicrafts by tourists and in obtaining economic benefits and distancing from the oil economy. Also, by applying innovation and creativity and applying the features specified in this research, it is possible to help the prosperity of these items in other handicrafts that are less popular while maintaining their originality.