validation of urban branding model in order to develop the tourism industry of guilan province

Some cities have unique and special features that have created a strong image of them in the minds of people elsewhere; but there are many cities that, despite their special features, have not been successful in this area. the purpose of this research is to validate the urban brand model in order to develop the tourism industry in gilan province. the statistical population of the study includes managers and experts of guilan cultural heritage and tourism organization and employees working in tourism services offices of guilan province. using a researcher-made questionnaire, 201 of them by simple random sampling method were selected. structural equation modeling using lisrel software was used to validate the model. the results of model validation showed that there is no significant relationship between contextual factors and strategies. but there is a significant relationship between other relationships in the model and the relationship between them was confirmed.