Razi University

  Abstract Sustainable tourism depends on various factors, including the quality of social relations, local community participation, tourist perceptions, and a sense of security. In border regions, external perceptions of destination security do not always align with the lived experiences of tourists. Despite possessing tangible and intangible cultural heritage—and the UNESCO World Heritage inscription of its cultural landscape in 2021—the Hawraman (Uramanat) region in western Iran is sometimes portrayed as a border zone with a potentially unsafe image; conversely, tourists visiting the destination report a different experience characterized by tranquility, acceptance, and safety. This gap between the "constructed image" and the "lived experience" constitutes the core issue of the present study. The central research question is: "How, and through what mechanisms, do security-generating cultural contexts link to sustainable tourism development in Hawraman—with a specific focus on Paveh County?" The study aims to identify and explain these mechanisms and to propose a context-specific model. In terms of purpose, the research is applied-developmental; regarding approach, it is qualitative, interpretive, and exploratory, employing an abductive strategy. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and written narratives involving 30 participants (20 tourists and 10 experts) and analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase thematic analysis. The analysis of 95 initial codes resulted in six main themes and one cautionary theme. The findings indicate that the security-generating cultural foundations of Uramanat link to sustainable tourism development through two complementary pathways: an internal pathway (cultural foundations ? *habitus* of civility and social capital ? ontological security) and an external pathway (heritage and cultural experience ? identity projection and the mitigation of negative stereotypes). These pathways are either reinforced or undermined by favorable institutional contexts (institutional facilitation). The study presents a "virtuous cycle" model, wherein the strengthening of one link facilitates the strengthening of others; conversely, a "vicious cycle" pathway—characterized by the commodification of culture and the erosion of social capital—was also identified. Additionally, the gap between "declared security" (an official definition based on border control) and "experienced security" (an informal definition based on trust and spontaneous order) emerged as a significant ancillary finding. The research offers innovation across three dimensions: the formulation of the contextual concept of the "*habitus* of civility" (synthesizing the theories of Bourdieu and Elias); the distinction between the internal and external pathways of cultural security generation; and the presentation of the "virtuous cycle" model as an analytical, context-sensitive framework. Keywords: Sustainable tourism, perceived security, ontological security, *habitus* of civility, virtuous cycle, thematic analysis, Uramanat, Paveh.