This project is based entirely on secondary research. I reviewed existing academic papers, news articles, environmental studies, and tourism sources that discussed Mazandaran and global overtourism cases. I used a thematic analysis approach to organize all the information into the main themes that consistently appeared across the literature, such as tourism pressure, land-use change, carrying capacity, and governance challenges.
The research process involved three main steps:
- Collecting and reviewing sources:
I gathered 17 sources, including peer-reviewed articles, environmental assessments, Iranian tourism data, and international overtourism case studies. From each, I extracted the relevant sentences and findings for this project. - Thematic grouping:
After extracting the material, I organized the findings into themes that kept repeating across different papers:
• land-use change and tourism pressure
• carrying capacity limits
• governance and policy gaps
• community participation
• sustainable planning
This helped me understand what patterns were strongest and where the evidence overlapped. - Comparative analysis:
I compared Mazandaran’s situation with international examples from the literature, such as Sagada (Philippines), the Canary Islands, the Czech countryside, Bhutan, and Macao. This let me identify similarities in overtourism patterns and see how other destinations responded to similar pressures. I used these cases to understand where Mazandaran fits within global sustainability challenges and to provide solutions for change.
This method works well for the research question because Mazandaran has limited English-language academic research available, so synthesizing multiple sources and comparing them with global cases gives a more complete and realistic picture. It also supports carrying-capacity analysis without needing new fieldwork or numerical modelling.