Analyzing the Semantic, Functional and Formal Dimensions of Urban Entrances in Order to Organize Tourism Elements (Case Study: Tabriz Entrance to Khoy)

Introduction: City entrances are a connection between the natural environment outside the city and the artificial environment inside the cities, which should prepare the tourist or traveler for entering the city. Identity elements include a sense of vitality, legibility and predictable behavior, remembering and learning, a sense of belonging, loyalty and ethnicity. In this regard, cultural identity at entry points can be promoted through the body of the entrance landscape and the creation of collective memories at the city's entry points. Accordingly, the present study seeks to assess the current situation and provide suggestions for improving the entrance to the city of Khoy from the side of Tabriz as a pilot. This study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of research method with a survey approach.
Materials and Methods: According to the approach of the present study, this study is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of research method with a survey approach. The research data were extracted from two library and field methods and were collected through a researcher-made questionnaire with a five-scale Likert scale. For this purpose, the organization of the entrance to Khoy city from the Tabriz side was analyzed using the SWOT method and three semantic, functional and formal dimensions in the form of 35 sub-indices, and using the purposeful snowball sampling method, a statistical population of 45 people including all university elites, experts, officials and managers of the urban area was selected. Physical or formal characteristics include the quality of passages, security, signs and equipment, tourism facilities and natural elements; performance indicators include services and equipment and emergency and law enforcement services, and semantic components include the beauty of the landscape, the representation of cultural, climatic, economic and architectural identity and the sense of beauty caused by vegetation, signs and buildings. More than 16 domestic and foreign studies were reviewed, each of which analyzed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of entry points as a case study.
Results and Discussion: The entrance to the city is not defined in the entry points of Tabriz.  In terms of the matrix of internal factors, the existence of farms and gardens, native vegetation, the largeness of agricultural plots, and the openness of the view to the natural bed are the strengths of analyzing the semantic, functional and formal aspects of the arrangement of the entrance to Tabari. Based on this, identity and semantic weakness, functional weakness in organizing movement and services, and formal weakness in readability and input marking can be considered as the weak points of analyzing the semantic, functional and formal aspects of organizing Tabari's input. Based on the matrix of external factors, the strengths of these entry points can be interpreted as the possibility of creating a "green gate of the city", attracting transit tourism, agricultural uses, and unregulated growth, physical disturbance, weakening of identity and transit pressures constitute the weak points of this sector.
Conclusion: The functional sub-index of farms and gardens around the route has been the best strength of this urban entrance. Along with that, the main weakness of providing services to passengers and meeting the principled and planned needs (functional), the opportunity point is the potential of green space, the existence of agricultural uses and the possibility of using them (formal), and the threat point is the undefined entrance (formal) for the city; accordingly, it is important to pay attention to creating welfare-recreational and accommodation services for tourists and taking advantage of the green space and desirable vegetation of the route to beautify it as much as possible and to use the symbols of the identity-cultural index of the city of Khoy. The suggestions in this section are as follows: installation of graphic signs including signboards and advertising boards, lighting at night, Separation of expressway and bypass roads and creation of service, welfare, recreational and residential complexes.