Analysis of Decision Areas in Cultural-Led Urban Regeneration with Tourism Approach in Historical Neighborhoods (Case Study: Zahir Abad)

Introduction The emergence of changes in national and international economies in the last two decades of the twentieth century as well as the need to modulate urbanization interventions based on local needs have been challenging traditional tools to rebuild cities. The changes in the views from large-scale, project-driven, and state-centered interventions to local rehabilitation based on internal capacities is a central feature of urban regeneration. Cultural tourism has become a catalyst for urban regeneration as an efficient and sustainable approach. It has regarded as an important policy consideration in broadening the tourist offerings of tourist destinations. Accordingly, from the last two decades of the twentieth century, many regeneration plans, especially in European countries, have used culture as an accelerating factor to promote urban historical areas and cultural rehabilitation. It has been a successful approach in intervention of declining historical centers. In Britain, As Basset (1993) argued, from the early 1980s onwards cities such as London, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Newcastle launched a series of new cultural strategies to apply arts in urban policy. These new strategies were marked by a radical widening of the concept of 'culture' and the virtual erasure of the traditional distinction between high art and popular entertainment. Over time, these strategies grew in complexity, covering more and more activities, but typically including some combination of the following themes;   (1) A concern with opening up traditional institutions such as museums and theatres to wider public use, by increasing access and encouraging more involvement in the local community. (2) An expanded program of support for community arts, ethnic minority cultures, and socially and culturally deprived neighborhoods; 3) A new focus on the infrastructure necessary for cultural production, embracing investment in studios, workshops, marketing and support organizations, and the planning of 'cultural districts'; After decades experiencing various paths of urban regeneration trough culture, cultural-led urban regeneration both as tool and as a rehabilitation approach is an activity that introduces the appropriate path to urban regeneration process through the use of cultural resources. In this activity, culture is considered as the main means of urban regeneration, because the culture uses efficient ways that are effective in helping to promote the economic and social conditions of the deprived historic urban areas. In Iran, the history of intervention in the deteriorated urban areas back to more than 50 years ago. But intervention policies in the areas with historical values are implemented regardless of their cultural potentials. It has led to a distortion of their cultural and historical identity. The main purpose of this paper is to explain the relationship between cultural tourism and urban regeneration using the analysis of decision areas method in the development of cultural tourism in the Zahir Abad, one of the historical districts of Tehran.   Methodology This research with a qualitative method ihas used a questionnaire tool for collecting data. The questionnaire designed for the residents of Zahir Abad neighborhood was based on the application process of analysis of decision areas. It includes questions in four categories of following characteristics including identification of the issues and the reasons for their emergence, identification of residents' views on how to solve problems in associating with cultural tourism potentials and identification of important cultural and cultural spaces to be used in planning of urban regeneration with the cultural tourism approach. In order to measure the reliability of the designed questionnaire, Cronbach's alpha has been calculated for questionnaires using SPSS. The value of 0.81 for the alpha was acceptable. Questions are designed using the Likert scale on a scale of five degrees of answers from 1 to 5 based on the agreement of the respondents. The region 20 of Tehran municipality was developed about 6,000 years ago, and the Zahir Abad neighborhood in this region, despite its historical and cultural significance, has problems in reducing the productivity of economic activities, insecurity, reducing the motivation of residence, the process of identity loss, gradual weakening of the functioning cultural spaces and their replacement with commercial and administrative functions.   Results and discussion Today, based on the successful experiences of the world, the process of urban regeneration using cultural resources, by adopting a cultural and historical approach to tourism, is a more sustainable and wise path to achieving the rehabilitation and modernization of historical neighborhood in old cities. The nature and method of planning and how to combine the objectives of cultural-led regeneration with the tools and requirements of cultural tourism can be crucial in achieving this goal. This combination is done in this article using analysis of decision areas method. The results show that this method has the ability to broadly connect with a range of factors influencing the process of rebuilding and that the economic strengthening and management structures of the neighborhood which are in the top priority for initiating the rehabilitation planning of the neighborhood. Conclusion The application of the analysis of decision areas method to the Zahir Abad neighborhood showed that strengthening the local economy infrastructure by strengthening the infrastructure of cultural and entrepreneurial tourism, along with the strengthening of community-based management structures and the provision of social security, were the most important initial options for cultural-led regeneration activities. This can be used to direct the budgeting of related organizations in this area.