Travel to Mars-like Places on Earth: A New Branch of Sustainable Ecotourism in Lut Desert World Heritage Site, Iran

Amir Ghorbani, Ali Zangiabadi (), Hossein Mousazadeh (), Farahnaz Akbarzadeh Almani, Kai Zhu and Lóránt Dénes Dávid ()
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Amir Ghorbani: Department of Tourism, Faculty of Geographical Sciences and Planning, University of Isfahan, Isfahan 81746-73441, Iran
Ali Zangiabadi: Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Geographical Sciences and Planning, University of Isfahan, Isfahan 81746-73441, Iran
Hossein Mousazadeh: Department of Regional Science, Faculty of Science, Eötvös Loránd University, 1053 Budapest, Hungary
Farahnaz Akbarzadeh Almani: Department of Tourism Management, Budapest Business School, University of Applied Sciences, 1149 Budapest, Hungary
Kai Zhu: Faculty of Resources and Environmental Science, Hubei University, Wuhan 430062, China
Lóránt Dénes Dávid: Faculty of Economics and Business, John von Neumann University, 6000 Kecskemet, Hungary

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-22

Abstract: Traveling to space and walking on other planets has always been a great dream for many tourists. Given that space tourism is not available to everyone, adventurers have always been looking for special and strange places that evoke the feeling of traveling to other planets, especially Mars. One of these places which is very similar to Mars is the Lut Desert World Heritage Site. The present study aims to introduce the Martian sites of the Lut Desert and offers a special type of trip to this beautiful desert that can further preserve it with a sustainable development approach. The statistical sample of the research is based on the qualitative analysis method, consisting of 18 participants, which consists of experts, desert tour guides, and tourists who have visited the studied sites. After the data collection process, the interviews were transcribed and analyzed using Maxqda 2020 software. The results of the research indicate that the four sites identified in the research, according to the participants, are similar to the images and videos published of Mars. Moreover, this new branch of desert ecotourism can develop sustainable ecotourism in the Lut Desert.

Keywords: tourism management; space tourism; Mars-like places; sustainable ecotourism; Lut Desert (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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