The Extremity of “Tourism with Cultural Approach” in Iran

Tourism with cultural approach, briefly known as “cultural tourism” in Iran, is about moving to the Iranian world, with this idea that the tourist is its target audience. The cultural heritage and the historical monuments of an ecosystem are both considered as legacy of that specific Land, that signifies the Iranian identity and determine “who their residence are”.
The natural monuments point out where their land is located. The speech language of them, is considered as a sign language, not a language of phrase. Under the sign language, sometimes explicitly and often implicitly, points are made that cannot be comprehended by all but just the target audience. In this type of tourism, the tourist is looking for encountering with the cultures, to get knowledge and cognition from it. Getting encountered to a culture means acquiring a real sense of where a place is located and who are their inhabitants. However, the important question here is, what is the intent of the cultural tourist from this knowledge? In other words, what will acquire the tourist as a visitor, by facing with the diverse cultures of Iranian inhabitants, as well as with the unique quality of “Iranian culture” and its real contemplation? The intent of tourism with a cultural approach is a kind of acquaintance that leads to “cultural self-awareness” or self-knowledge. Such an acquaintance in tourism activity, will possibly happen only when the observation of historical and cultural monuments, are not just to enhance the visitor knowledge or satisfy his historical curiosity, through the locked door of artworks.