The Principles of Designing the “Silk Road Hotel-Faculty” Inspired by the Usage of Caravanserais in this International Road

Abstract

Considering Iran’s potential for attracting international tourists in the light of two approaches, which are economic cartels and cultural–heritage tours, it seems that improving services in terms of hospitality and guest lodgings skills is an undeniable need. Moreover, building residential-hotel complexes based on the latest international standards within the framework of these approaches resulted from the legacy of the Silk Road, which has a universal image all over the world, makes it possible to ensure that every tourist that has a worldwide approach to travelling is absorbed.

On the other hand, consequences of the decline of fossil fuels and other political events and developments in the region strengthen the dependence on tourism day by day. As a result, it is possible to use this particular symbol (Caravanserai) in order to take constructive and appropriate steps for the sake of providing huge financial resources for substantial entrepreneurship in Iran.

The question is: how can we institutionalize, through motivating the youth in Iran, the spirit of hospitality and tourist acceptance, and foster and strengthen this scientific and necessary branch of science in society sing a specific behavior–scientific base.

One of the weaknesses of domestic tourism industry, which to this moment has instigated great damage to the body of tourist industry, is inability in providing appropriate road services and receiving undesirable feedback from this important sector of the tourism industry. Based on strong and robust documents, caravanserais have long been used to provide services to travelers as a convenient and safe place for caravans to take a rest, from the Safavid to the middle of Qajar period in Iran. A significant number of these caravanserais are located on the Silk Road which connected the East to the West. Designing and creating educational agencies using caravanserais of the Silk Road can restore the architectural style and create an educational and scientific environment in the traditional Persian architecture. Moreover, with reference to the details and features of traditional schools and through lodging travelers by the motivated students that seek experience create a satisfactory context that might significantly have an impact on creating a spirit of hospitality and foster tourism. It is worth noting that any delays and lack of attention to this issue has irreversible consequences that over time will have increasing negative effects on the economy of the country.

The present article uses documentary study and analytic-descriptive method to introduce an appropriate and effective educational environment for hotel management and tourism training in providing services to travelers and tourists.  It is the first hypothesis in terms of establishing a hotel-school, called Road Silk, using the traditional building structure taken from the Iranian Caravanserais and schools in an attempt to foster future growth of tourism in Iran and the Middle East.

According to the former head of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, the need for 400 hotels for different usages is inevitable in Iran. Therefore, it can easily be concluded that providing professional human resources within the framework of international standards not only should be emphasized by researchers, but to achieve satisfactory results the construction and establishment of such buildings ought to be carried out using a standard format by the professionals experts trained in the industry. Consequently, the industry's infrastructure must be defined and implemented in 4 dimensions including space, time, financial resources and human resources.

Therefore, it is needed to pay attention to the establishment of specialized educational centers as the main infrastructure of this industry. By providing definitions, planning, and standard frameworks based on the current sample cases in the world, the present research attempts to use caravanserais as the behavioral base and the cultural heritage of Iran in the tourism industry, and on the other hand tries to take a big step in empowering the hotel management culture and science in caravanserai as an ancient icon.