Introduction:
Tourism currently accounts for a large share of countries' GDP and in some cases reaches 80% for small countries. However, In Iran, in general, and in less developed cities in particular, tourism is not exploited to a great extent. Among various regions of the country, South Khorasan province has one of the weakest economies because of its unstable natural and climatic conditions. In this regard, Boshruyeh has a particular status, so that policy makers and even public do not believe in the effectiveness of tourism industry on the economic prosperity of this region. To change this trend from 2015 onwards, it was tried to hold meetings with some of the influential in this city, through which creative initiatives in the process of revitalizing tourism attractions and especially their sustainability were put into practice. One of the basic approaches suggested and welcomed in this area was creative tourism. To this end, tourism industry leaders and executives were urged to apply creative strategies such as hosting desert skydiving festivals and exploring the sky, changing symbols and elements of the city, organizing food festivals, holding competitions associated with documentaries, etc
. so that tourists could spend more time in the city and particularly, spend the night in the city. These changes
had so significant consequences and impacts that after the first year of implementation, the number of side programs increased from 8 at the beginning to 23 at the end of the period. To investigate this effect, the present study was conducted to discuss scientifically and systematically the developments that occurred.
This study is descriptive and analytical in terms of its method. However, in terms of objective, it is considered practical. The required data have been obtained from existing documents, especially the province input and output table along with field surveys after which necessary adjustments were made. Two completely different steps were considered in this study. As such, the conditions were first adjusted using the province input and output table in 2015 and other data
; and then the developments in tourism entry and stay following the adoption of a creative tourism approach were compared with the trends mentioned to determine what impact this approach had had on the developments in the tourism industry and ultimately on the economic development of the city. To this end, in addition to responsible organizations, the number of tourists entering the city was determined using re-hunting method to account for changes that were left out of the view of these institutions and organizations. Accordingly, in the first part, the collected data were evaluated using the method of determining the city's input-output coefficients based on the adjustment of national coefficients. In this method, . Flegg Semi-Logarithmic Location Quotient (FLQ) was used to determine the coefficients. For this purpose, based on the National Input-Output Table, the Input-Output Table of South Khorasan Province was first calculated and the parameters needed to minimize production forecast error were determined. Next, based on the national table, the city table was determined using these parameters. In fact, by considering employment as a criterion of the dimensions of the space economy and adjustment of the technical coefficients of the national and regional table, the direct urban coefficients were determined using existing relationships in econometric models. In the second stage, and exploring the impact of the Creative tourism approach, the data were analyzed based on provincial data and output table in 2018, and the results were compared with the findings of the first stage.
In order to achieve the research objectives, the matrix of direct production coefficients was first prepared at the national, provincial, and urban levels. According to this information, the relationship between economic sectors was determined at the levels indicated. As expected, the direct national coefficients were greater than direct provincial coefficients and the direct provincial coefficients were larger than urban ones, and their ranking at the indicated levels was quite different. The reason for this is that basically, larger areas are more self-sufficient and small and medium-sized ones have to get more outflows from higher levels or neighboring areas. Computations were made in order to obtain the increase in the final demand of indirect effects, and the results indicated that production multipliers in all sectors were higher at the national level compared to the provincial level, while both of them were higher than urban level. In addition, ranking the importance of sectors is quite different in the potential for economic growth. According to this information, the higher the coefficient, the higher the produced economic value will be. To determine the effect of tourism on increasing employment, employment multipliers were used. Since there was no independent study on this connection at the urban level, the direct coefficients of employment in this city were assumed to be equal to the national and provincial levels and hence, the multipliers of this city were calculated. Overall, the results showed that under normal circumstances, a total of 131 people were added to the city for the number of city employees and the city's production also earned 567 billion rials. But with the benefits of Creative tourism, the figure in 2019, rises to 166 people and 706 billion rials, respectively.
Considering the impact of tourism on income and employment in Boshruyeh, the proposed strategies for this city include strengthening the tourism industry and investment in the sectors that have the highest impact on increasing income and employment. In fact, the results of this study can help authorities to justify large investments in the tourism sector, while people will also recognize the status and importance of tourism and change their behavior accordingly. Undoubtedly, for many economic activists, attention to empirical findings can be helpful to change profitable activities. According to the results of this survey, which indicate the profitability of some specific economic sectors compared to others, it is hoped that the economic activists pay more attention to the sectors which have been neglected so far. Such a situation will make the economic and social impact of tourism in this small town more fundamental.
Key Words: Creative tourism, job creation, economic development, Boshruyeh city.