Policy culture challenges for sustainable urban tourism development in the global south countries: the case study of Tehran city

National legislation and the presence of a legal framework that supports urban tourism in the Global South, including Iran, are crucial for establishing a robust local tourism management and achieving sustainable development. However, in Iran, particularly in its capital, Tehran, there remains an absence of a national legislative framework to support urban tourism. In Iran's legislative framework, urban tourism is predominantly perceived as a governmental concern, with the central government responsible for formulating decisions and policies. The present study aims to investigate the role of the lawmaking system at the national and provincial levels in the sustainable development of urban tourism in Tehran. The research method is qualitative and the study utilizes policy research theory for gathering data and analyzing them to achieve the research goals. The results show that local institutions, particularly the Tehran municipality, play a minimal role in the urban tourism policy-making process due to insufficient legal provisions that support its authority in the urban tourism policymaking process. The findings of the present study also highlight that the top-down approach in the urban tourism lawmaking system in Iran frequently results in a disjunction between the requirements of local communities and the tourism policies established.