Travel to Literary Destinations
Literary tourism is a subdivision of cultural tourism, whereby tourists choose and travel to those destinations where they have the opportunity to know more about the creators of salient literary contributions. Such destinations comprise a wide range of locations like poets’/paints’/authors’ place of birth, grave, house, or the places about which they have contributions. For example, William Shakespeare’s home in Stratford and Goethe’s museum are among highly known literary attractions in London and Frankfurt (two literary destinations), respectively.
In Iran, there have been also a large number of authors and artists in the course of history who have contributed to Farsi literature and language. They have had significant roles in reviving or promoting the language in the region such that today, the influence of Farsi is one of the factors, apart from Nowruz, which identifies cultural borders of the country. Notably, Nowruz refers to ceremonies/celebrations marking the beginning of the first month and season of the Iranian calendar. This language heritage provides significant capacities for the country’s tourism development. However, literary tourism can be regarded as a kind of an emerging market in the country in spite of Farsi’s long history, a large number of its prominent poems/authors/artists in the past and present times. It should be argued that attractions and capacities in literary tourism, like other types of tourism, do not guarantee its development; rather, the ways through which marketing strategies based on the principals of literary tourism are used for targeting appropriate tourism market(s), market(s) segmentation, and defining respective tours considering demand rates are essential as well.
The literary tourism market can be divided into three levels, in terms of figures and their contributions’ fame and influence, including national, regional, and international levels. The national market comprises those figures who are only known inside of a country, while the regional market encompasses a larger area with more known figures. At a broader level, international figures provide international markets for a country or a group of countries. For example, Molana, Hafez, Saadi Shirazi, and Omar Khayyam are among Iran’s international figures who have influenced their areas of study/interest internationally.
An appropriate introduction and improvement of the literary tourism market in a country necessitates planning in order to prepare the required infrastructures, advertisements, and promotional methods with the purpose of development at national, regional, or international levels. For example, of the effective strategies include holding and preparing cultural-literary festivals, tour packages, specific maps for literary tourism, literary documentaries, and specialized tour guides. Iran can also apply such strategies to boost the potential of its literary tourism, leading finally to the development of cultural tourism in the country.
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