Natanz, a baghshahr born from the historical bond between humans and nature within a valley-shaped basin enclosed by the Karkas Mountains, has resulted in a distinctive landscape identity for this land. Considering Natanz’s unique natural features and cultural landscape as a potential attraction, tourism has been proposed as a strategy to enhance urban life; however, the city observed today is not a tourist city. This article attempts, through a holistic and ontological perspective on Natanz’s garden city nature and by utilizing concepts such as place, to analyze the causes of tourism development inefficiency at three levels and to interpret the role of Natanz’s garden city nature in its tourism development. This research is descriptive-analytical and, relying on exploratory and library observations with a walking and landscape biography approach, addresses the subject. The study shows that tourism development in Natanz, instead of focusing on the city’s landscape, results from spatial reductionism, commodification of heritage, and the absence of a multifaceted and detailed perspective. Tourism development primarily, instead of viewing the city as a whole, sees heritage merely as a museum for display without considering the cultural landscape and unique characteristics of Natanz. For a city like Natanz, which is a historic garden city rich in cultural manifestations of this place-making element, the ontological nature of this feature will lead to enhancing the efficiency of tourism and improving the city's landscape.