This study aims to examine the nature of the macro-level tourism policymaking approach of the Islamic Republic of Iran in upstream documents over the years 1989 to 2024. The main focus is to identify the dominant discourse preference between two prevailing approaches — the cultural-protective approach and the economic-development-oriented approach. To this end, a directed qualitative content analysis method was employed to analyze 18 key documents, including general policies, development plans, and sectoral documents. Content analysis using Maxqda software resulted in the extraction of 115 codes, which were classified into three main approaches: cultural (46%), economic (41%), and integrated (13%). The findings indicate that the cultural discourse — emphasizing identity preservation, heritage, development of religious and pilgrimage tourism, support for handicrafts and traditional arts, and promotion and education of public culture — dominates over the economic approach. The economic approach is primarily expressed through concepts such as strengthening tourism infrastructure and facilities, supportive policies and financial incentives, and specialized and regional development. Notably, the integrated discourse has a small share, and there is a significant decline in attention to tourism in the approved documents of the 2020s compared to the 2000s. Compared to prior literature, the results support interpretations highlighting the dominance of the cultural perspective, lack of cohesion in policy formulation, and neglect of economic-cultural linkages in Iran’s tourism policymaking. This study, by emphasizing the discourse gap among documents, stresses the necessity of designing a coherent, multidimensional, and cross-sectoral framework for tourism policymaking—one that synergistically integrates cultural values with the economic requirements of sustainable development.