Evaluation of the Phantasm and Branding of Tourism Destinations (case study: South Khorasan Province, Iran)

Nowadays, the tourism branding has such importance for governments that annually they spend a lot of financial resources to building the brands although their efforts don’t reach to the desirable results. This study aims at evaluating the phantasm and branding of tourist destinations in the South Khorasan Province in Iran. An applied qualitative methodology was used to carry out the data foundation analysis. 100 tourists, who had visited the South Khorasan Province, were interviewed. In the interviews, the identification and assessment of tourist phantasm were determined for each county and accordingly it was suggested to establish the required infrastructure, and services according to tourists' view. The Results showed that phantasms such as “agricultural products, desert hiking, higher education, astronomy and mineral resources” had a high priority in the building of tourist branding in the study area. Therefore, decision-making and planning at macro level should define the Destination brand and at the micro level Province tourism projects should be done in accordance with these brands and priorities.