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Purpose – The aim of this paper is to present a model in which the relationship between Muslims’ involvement with traveling to Islamic destinations and Islamic destination brand equity is investigated. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the existing theoretical and empirical research on involvement and brand equity in tourism marketing and the literature on Muslim tourists’ needs and culture, a conceptual model for Muslim tourists is developed. The model investigates the relationships between Muslims’ psychological motivations for traveling to Islamic destinations and the evaluation of destination Islamic brand. Findings – The study shows that the more Muslims are involved in traveling to Islamic destinations, the more likely they evaluate the key dimensions of destination Islamic brand. This is demonstrated by the influence of Muslims’ involvement on their awareness of Islamic destinations, their image of the Islamic destination attributes, the perceived quality of Islamic offerings, the perceived Islamic value and their loyalty toward Islamic destinations. Practical implications – The study evaluates the Islamic brand equity in the context of Islamic tourism destinations and in relation to Muslims’ interests in traveling to Islamic countries. The study contributes to better understand the Islamic destinations and how to maximize the benefits of their Islamic attributes. It is suggested that Islamic attributes should be highlighted more for Muslim tourists interested in traveling to Islamic countries. Investigating the concepts analyzed will help tourism destinations to integrate marketing and promotional campaigns and build a more powerful Islamic brand in Muslim markets. Originality/value – The relationship between involvement and brand equity has not been yet explored adequately, especially in the context of Islamic branding. This study adds to the previous studies in which the link between personal involvement with a specific destination and destination brand equity was explored. The role of Islamic values in this relationship is highlighted. The study contributes to destination branding studies by being one of the primary works, which applies the concept of brand equity to Islamic destinations.

Caspian Sea coastlines in Iran have been opened to tourists for ‘sun-sea-sand’ holiday purpose and have created dynamic ecological sources for many economic activities in the region. However, these coastal areas have been exposed to critical situation of losing their attractiveness due to lack of balance between tourism activities and natural environment operations. Development of sustainable tourism can be a suitable way to solve the problem. Accordingly, having public awareness about existing unfavorable environmental consequences of tourism activities in the region is the first step toward sustainability in the area. As such, the need for further contribution to and reflection of adverse environmental impacts which have been partially derived from tourism activities seems to be considered. Consequently, this paper explores negative environmental impacts of tourism in Caspian Sea Coasts in Iran. The study, subsequently, evaluates the existed regulations and policies regarding the issues in southern part of Caspian Sea coastal areas.

Sustainable development has been recently one of the essential subjects in tourism debates. In order to have sustainable tourism in a destination, both visitors and local community must understand and follow the rules of sustainability while different types of tourism in the destination should be considered as well. This study investigates on historical-cultural tourism in Kerman city in Iran to find out how this type of tourism has affected the city's sustainability with regard to sustainability indicators. A model has been used based on the work of Choi and Sirakaya (2006) who investigated on sustainability indictors for community tourism. Economical, social, cultural and environmental dimensions have been used as the criteria for measuring sustainability. Delphi technique was used as the method of this study for structuring a group communication process. After four rounds of discussion with the study panel, the most affected indictors of each dimension were addressed by them. Results showed that historical-cultural tourism in Kerman have influenced employment, income, nature of demand, host and tourist attitude toward tourism development, community health, cultural site management and education, loss of renewable and non-renewable resources, and health of human population.

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. COVID-19 has presented a significant challenge to the care providers of patients with MS. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of COVID-19 infection and its seropositivity in MS patients in Guilan, Iran, in 2021. Materials & Methods: In this analytical-cross-sectional study, all patients with relapsing-remitting MS registered in the Guilan MS Association with an expanded disability status scale of less than 5 who were referred for evaluation participated in the study. Information related to the clinical and serological symptoms of COVID-19 infection, changes in drug use, and the occurrence of new attacks were collected. Serological results of COVID-19 (IgG) among them were registered. Results: In total, 260 patients with MS (78.8% women, and 21.2% men) with a Mean±SD age of 38.7±9.9 years, and a Mean±SD duration of MS of 8.9±4.9 years were investigated. The most commonly used drugs were Dimethyl fumarate, Interferon, and Rituximab, respectively. Thirty-three patients (12.6%) had a clinical COVID-19 infection, of which 32 people had a mild and only one had a critical infection. Eight patients (1.3%) had positive COVID-19 IgG tests. No significant relationship was found between the COVID-19 infection with the type of medication, medication change, clinical attack of MS, and co-morbidities (P>0.05). Conclusion: A few patients had positive COVID-19 IgG tests and clinical COVID-19 infection. The vast majority had mild disease, and the clinical attack was not related to COVID-19 infection.