Evaluation of Tourism Development Drivers In Alman Village, Rasht County

Introduction
Rural tourism is one of the main areas of tourism. This type of tourism is considered as a solution for development and a basic strategy for improving the welfare in rural areas. Identifying and prioritizing drivers of rural tourism development is the concern of strategic decision-making centers in the field of tourism, and conscious planning based on the knowledge of these drivers is the way to develop villages. Identifying and prioritizing drivers’ speeds up the development cycle of rural tourism. The improvement of transportation infrastructure, roads, creation of eco-tourism and rural residences and the existence of traditional rural markets have provided a suitable platform for the development of rural tourism in Rasht County. The sustainable development of rural tourism and the transformation of the villages of Rasht city into suitable destinations for local, national and international tourists need to identify and rank the affecting factors so that a favorable future can be achieved in the field of tourism for the villages of Rasht County by controlling or strengthening the priority cases. Alman village, near Rasht city and Rasht-Bander Anzali highway, has a suitable geographical location and unique capacities for the development of rural tourism. This research aims at identifying and prioritizing the drivers that affect the development of tourism in Alman village using the opinions of local experts in the field of rural tourism.
 

Methodology

In this study, by designing a comprehensive decision tree with six criteria and 36 sub-criteria, the driving forces affecting the development of tourism in Alman village were identified. In order to design the decision tree, drivers applied in previous researches and the opinion of local experts were used. Also, the Spherical Fuzzy Hierarchy Process (SFAHP) was used to prioritize the driving forces affecting the development of rural tourism. The implementation steps of the SFAHP algorithm can be summarized in five main steps. In the first step, a hierarchical model or decision tree is created. In the second step, the matrix of pairwise comparisons is created using linguistic terms. In the third step, the consistency of the matrix of pairwise comparisons is evaluated using the consistency index. In the fourth step, the fuzzy weights of the criteria are calculated. Finally, in the fifth step, weights are calculated using a sequence of hierarchical layers. The required data was collected by completing the pairwise comparison questionnaire by 15 tourism experts in Guilan province. According to the dimensions of the decision tree, this questionnaire has 118 pairwise comparisons.
 
 
 

Findings

The results showed that among the criteria of the decision tree, "Employment development" with a relative weight of 18.05% has the first importance. Also, the criteria of "Environmental-Physical" and "Village Capacity" with relative weights of 17.68 and 16.79% are in the second and third place, respectively. Among the sub-criteria related to "Employment Development", "Improvement of job opportunities related to tourism", "Investment in the training of local manpower required for the development of tourism services and activities", and "Creation and development of eco-lodge", were the three most important sub-criteria in order to realize the development of rural tourism, respectively. Among the "environmental-physical" sub-criteria, "management of waste disposal in the village " with a relative weight of 31.73%, "management of wastewater disposal in the village" with a relative weight of 26.79% and "prevention of agricultural land use change" with a relative weight of 26.29% are the most important drivers of tourism development in this scope, respectively. The comparison of nine sub-criteria of "village capacity" showed that the sub-criteria of "village security" with a relative weight of 16.28% is in the first place, the sub-criteria of "access to suitable accommodation facilities" with a relative weight of 13.69% is in the second place, and the sub-criteria of "proper treatment of Villagers" with a relative weight of 12.48% are in the third place of importance. The comparison of sub-criteria of participation showed that sub-criteria "participation of villagers in providing accommodation services to tourists" with a relative importance of 25.15% is in the first place of importance, sub-criteria "participation of villagers in the construction of service- entertainment centers" with a relative importance of 24.55% is in the second place of importance, and the sub-criteria of "enhancing people participation in decision-making process" is ranked third with a relative importance of 18.55%. In the criteria of government-institutional support, five sub-criteria were compared. The results showed that "improvement and promotion of village infrastructure and amenities for the development of tourism" with a relative importance of 27% is in the first place, the sub-criteria of "supervision and support of local management and attracting the cooperation of the village Islamic council in order to promote tourism" with a relative importance of 20.07% is in the second place, and the sub-criteria of "providing and developing security services for the continued presence of tourists in the village" is in the third place with a relative weight of 19%. The comparison of eight sub-criteria related to the "cultural-social" criteria showed that the sub-criteria "Designing the necessary programs for the cultural foundation in the development of rural tourism" with a relative weight of 15.14%, is ranked first, the sub-criteria "Education of villagers regarding the management of tourism space" with a relative weight of 14.19%, is ranked second, and the sub-criteria "attention of tourists to cultural-religious characteristics in the village" with a relative weight of 13.7% is ranked third. In order to determine the key drivers of rural tourism development, the interval of standard deviation from mean was used. The results showed that the management of waste disposal in the village (final weight 61.5 percent), improvement of job opportunities related to tourism (final weight 5.25 percent), the management wastewater disposal in the village (final weight 4.74 percent), prevention of agricultural land use change (final weight 4.65 percent), improvement and promotion of village infrastructure and amenities for the development of tourism (final weight 4.25 percent), participation of villagers in providing accommodation services to tourists (final weight 4.08 percent) and the participation of villagers in the construction of service-entertainment centers (final weight 3.98 percent) are respectively the seven key driving forces affecting the development of tourism in Alman village.
 

Discussion and Conclusion

The findings of this study have a high convergence with the results of previous studies such as Mohammadi and et al. (2018), Hjalager and et al. (2018) and Kastenholz and et al. (2018). The development of rural tourism in Guilan province is a suitable approach for poverty alleviation in rural areas, reduction of migration to cities, sustainability and preservation of rural culture components, environment, natural resources and strengthening of self-esteem in rural areas. The support and removal of obstacles from the government in order to create a greater role for the private sector in rural tourism can lead to the development of employment and the improvement of capacities and infrastructures of rural tourism. Increasing the level of awareness and empowering the villagers along with their participation in the development process of rural tourism is one of the requirements for success in advancing the development goals of this sector.