investigating the role of police in the security of tourists case study: shandiz city

extended abstract 1. introduction tourism development is considered as one of the most important guidelines of planning, through which the rapid growth of tourism industry in the world, planning for its development, and keeping up with the streams of planning for tourism development are necessitated. one of the goals of tourism is to provide comfort, security, and tranquility for the tourists without which the development of this industry or even its mere existence is rendered meaningless. the presence and performance of the police is effective in maintaining security for the tourists as well as providing the proper context as to support local businesses through supporting visitors. consequently, given the significance of tourism and security along with the role of the police in this area, the necessity of conducting research in this regard is demonstrated. to this end, the present study is an attempt to investigate the role of the police in the security of tourists in shandiz city, one of the most important tourism destinations in khorasan-e-razaviprovince. according to its theoretical framework, this study seeks to provide answers to the following questions: • what is the status quo the tourists’ sense of security in shandiz city? • does the role of the police affect the tourists’ sense of security in a positive way? 2. research methodology the method used in this study is descriptive-correlational. data collection was carried out through questionnaires and interviews. the population and target group of the study consisted of people who were visiting shandizcity as domestic tourists. according to the cochran formula, the sampleincludes 384 accessible people. the cronbach’s alpha was used to indicate the consistency of the study, the value of which was acceptable. data were examined for all the variablesusing spss 22 software and likert’s five-point scale, ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). to provide an analysis of the data, t-test, pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple linear regression test were used. 3. results and discussion the results ofone sample t-test showed that the security of tourists is more than average, hence in a proper status. furthermore, the test results for assessing the aspects of the tourists’ sense of security demonstrated that aside from the dimensions of urban environment, other aspects of tourists’ security are of proper status. pearson correlation test was used to verify the second hypothesis. the results showed a positive correlation between the role of the police and tourists’ security in shandiz. the threefold aspects concerning the role of the police have been of positive, meaningful effects on tourists’ security. additionally, the relationship between the role of the police and tourists’ security in shandizwas investigated through multiple linear regression model. the coefficient value specified for this model indicates that 61% of changes regarding the dependent variable is explained through independent variables including the police performance role, their capabilities, and their intensity. 4. conclusion the results of t-test demonstrated the fact the extent of satisfaction regarding the status quo of tourists’ security in shandiz city is at an average, proper level which has resulted in their inclination to make a second trip to this city. moreover, it can be stated that in a micro scale, the extent of satisfaction towards financial security and people’s safety were high while the security of urban spaces was considered as low. also, according to pearson correlation test, there exists a positive, meaningful relationship between the aspects regarding the role of the police and sense of security. given the intensity of correlation coefficients, the highest coefficient (+0.266) belonged to the intensity of relationship between the performance of the police and the financial dimension concerning the sense of security, whereas the lowest coefficient (+0.226) was related to the aspect of enthusiasm and urban spaces. the results of multiple linear regression test showed a positive, meaningful effect concerning the sense of security on the role of the police. furthermore, the value of the modulated coefficient shows that the developed model has been able to justify 61% of the changes regarding the dependent variable. among the aspects of the role of the police, their performance has been recognized as the most effective.