Studying Seaport’s Hinterland-Foreland Concepts and the Effective Factors on Their Development

ABSTRACT:The areas which enjoying the comparative advantage, the main hinterland shall be considered a port and generally, this port to handle the majority of entry and exit cargos. The comparative hinterland consisting of areas that have no ports with special advantage exists. Consequently, other ports, have a share in the local market. For many ports, the captive hinterland has been destructed or reduced to a smaller size. This lead to increasing attention by ports authorities in boosting the capacity of the comparative hinterlands. The current research was implemented in three phases aiming at studying hinterland-foreland concepts and the relative effective factors in developing them. At the 1st phase, the concept of ports’ hinterland-forelandand the effective elements on them were investigated and at the 2nd phase, using Delphi method, the effective factors in non- development and inefficient access to the ports’ hinterlands were determined and with respect to experts’ opinions were prioritized.