Survey of Effect of Merger in Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organizations on Tourism destinations Competitiveness Development

Organization mergers, integration of activities in two or more organizations, have always attracted the attention of policy makers as well as decision makers. The merger of the three organizations of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts into one organization named the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts organization which took place in two stages between 2003 and 2005, is among the biggest mergers of the past few years in our country. This paper analyzes the effects of this merger on the competitiveness of tourism destinations. The model proposed by Ritchie and Crouch (2003), which is the most comprehensive model in this area is used. This model considers five main factors: core resources and attractors, destination management, destination policy, planning and development, qualifying and amplifying determinants, and supporting factors and resources. The effects of the merger on these factors were studied using two questionnaires verified by experts in the field. 47 of the total 62 questions were put in the first questionnaire and the other 15 were put in the second. Since the merger was completed in 2005, the statistical population is comprised of managers and staff at the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts organization in the province of Hamedan who had worked in one of the three separate organizations prior to the merger and tourists who had made a visit to the province then. 74 participants i.e. employees with over seven years of experience on the job responded to the first questionnaire and 219 responded to the second questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software package and single or multi-variant t-test. The results indicate that by considering 3 as the significance level all the hypotheses will be proven wrong. However, by considering 2 as the significance level all the hypotheses will be proven. This shows that not many changes may have taken place after the merger and it has only had a fair effect on competitiveness. Overall, we can conclude that the merger of the Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts organizations has not had a positive effect.