摘要：The aim of the current study was to investigate the perceived psychic distance of potential tourists in relation to Iran as a tourism destination. The concept of psychic distance refers to perceived similarities/ differences between specific destination and tourist's home country. The members of couch-surfing virtual community participated in this study. The statistical data were collected by convenience sampling method. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying the dimensions of perceived psychic distance in relation to Iran. The results of exploratory and confirmatory analysis indicated that these dimensions include infrastructure, culture and legal distance. Furthermore, the result of one sample t- test revealed that international tourists perceive high psychic distance in relation to Iran as a tourism destination. In addition, the result of one-way variance analysis showed that tourists from ten of the world's regions perceived different levels of psychic distance in relation to Iran. Tourists from the Middle East region perceived less psychic distance compared to other regions. These findings have several managerial implications. First, development of Iranian tourism industry requires planning to reduce perceived psychic distance in terms of infrastructure, culture and legal aspects. Second, based on the lower psychic distance which is perceived by tourists from the Middle East, the Iranian tourism policy-makers can consider the region as a more accessible target market.
