The Impact of Ecotourism on Rural Development (Case Study: Three Villages in Paveh County in Iran)

Abstract

Various factors in the village are affected by rural tourism that the economy can be mentioned as one of them. The present study, considering the role that tourism can have on employment, seeks to study the role of tourism in rural employment. The present study is an applied research in terms of the purpose and a quantitative- survey in terms of the method. The questionnaire has been used to collect information for the purpose of the present study. The study population is consisted of 298 people from three Tourism destination villages namely Hajij, Khanghah, and Shamshir which data were collected by systematic random sampling using Cochran method. The reliability of the research was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient at the level of .75 and the research validity was confirmed by the geography and tourism experts. According to the findings of the present research, indigenous people have a high level of satisfaction with tourism due to the job creation by tourism through the creation of new occupational opportunities, the expansion of current jobs and income generation for the villagers. There was also no significant difference between the occupation types in terms of tourism satisfaction as a result of the positive impact of tourism on all occupational groups. Regression analysis indicates the role of occupation in rural tourism.