Cultural Tourism in Guilan

Presence of natural, historical, cultural and religious attractions in Iran resulted in Tourism as forms of travel to nature, religious, health, sport and etc. Amongst these, “cultural tourism” attained special position and was considered by theorists. Cultural attractions presence, is major factor of this kind of tourism and Iran enjoys this grant due to ancient history, rich culture and various customs. Auitable infrastructures and facilities, culture building and providing information are affective to attract and develop tourism activities in addition to tourism attractions. At Guilan province, proper acts have not been done to develop this kind of tourism, in spite of presence of unique cultural and historical attractions, so that cultural attractions remained unknown for tourists yet. This paper is intended to introduce cultural and historical attractions of Rasht city in addition to necessity of cultural tourism. Also, identifying weaknesses of cultural tourism, assessing tourists’s problems and even offering strategies in order to improve facilities and attract tourist are another goals of this research. Research method is library and studying evidences and documents. 500 questionnaires completed by tourists in order to realize problems and assessing current condition. Results show that, no action were done to introduce these attractions, in spite of historical backgrounds and rich culture of this region (which has been considered as great source of cultural tourism); furthermore, problems such as shortage of services and accommodation facilities (Hotel, parking, Toilets, parks and …) are considered as cultural tourism barriers in this province.