To date, there has been a lot of discussion concerning tourism, travel and journey and these are not new topics, however, over the past two centuries, considering huge industrial and technological evolutions and changes, there has been a rapid, widespread growth in this field. In line with the growth and expansion of this phenomenon, its aspects have increased and have become more sophisticated, too. To this end, studying these issues scientifically has gained more significance than before.

The various aspects of this phenomenon has made it a suitable topic for interdisciplinary studies and has attracted the attention of various fields to it. To the extent that it can be said it has received attention from economics, from the perspective of economic effects of tourism, anthropology, in terms of its cultural effects, geography, in terms of spatial patterns of tourism, political sciences, in terms of political geography of tourism, history, in terms of its evolution and changes and also from other sciences regarding its various other aspects.

From the 70s, tourism received a special attention from sociology, as the science of studying social phenomenon, and a new branch of this field was created. The entrance of sociology to this domain opened up new, valuable realms to researchers of this field. Such that today, two broad levels of study and research in sociology of tourism can be distinguished: first, studying social reasons and causes of tourism and traveling and second, its social consequences, applications and effects.

Studying the role of tourism on intergroup relationships, societies and cultures, phenomenology of traveling experience, the mutual influence of host and visiting societies on one another, environmental effects of tourism, and studying the role of such variables as ethnicity, religion, education, social class, gender, etc. on tourism and willingness to travel is just a small section of diverse domains which has led to the attractiveness and effectiveness of sociology of tourism.

Although sociology of tourism is still in its infancy in the Iranian society, this burgeoning field, along with other related sciences, can prove effective in utilizing the huge potential and capacity of the Iranian society with regards to tourism and help turn Iran into one of the tourism hubs of the world. An industry which is among the least expensive and most promising methods of developing the high-potential society of Iran.

Dr. Hossein Mirzaei, Vice-president of CTPS