Analyzing the Development Process of Local Food Tourism in Gilan Province: Pathways to Rural Sustainability and Overcoming Obstacles

Introduction
Food tourism, which emphasizes the consumption of local cuisine, offers a powerful avenue for fostering community sustainability by allowing tourists to deeply engage with local culture and agriculture, thereby shaping positive perceptions and behavioral responses such as revisits and recommendations. This form of cultural tourism is particularly crucial for Iran, given its focus on cultural expansion, and especially for Gilan Province, a UNESCO "Creative City of Gastronomy" renowned for its over 170 traditional dishes. Despite this immense potential and the global trend toward food tourism, this aspect remains significantly underdeveloped and under-researched in Iran, particularly within Gilan's rural areas.
The limited academic attention to the consumptive value of local foods and its role in sustainable rural development in Iran presents a notable research gap. Existing literature on this subject is sparse, leaving key components of food tourism largely unexplored or superficially discussed. Given the complex interplay of macro and micro factors influencing tourism, a deeper understanding of these dynamics is essential for rural development stakeholders and planners. Therefore, this study aims to identify the key factors influencing the development of food tourism rooted in a sustainable rural community approach in Gilan Province, and to explore the associated strategies, barriers, and outcomes.
 
Methodology
This study aims to analyze the local food tourism development process in Gilan Province, with a specific focus on enhancing sustainable rural communities. Accordingly, the research is applied in nature and exploratory in its approach. Methodologically, it falls within the category of qualitative research, utilizing Grounded Theory and the DEMATEL model for data analysis.
 
Findings
The findings revealed several key categories:

Causal Factors: Identified elements include robust government and private sector support, a strong emphasis on food authenticity, and effective initiatives for education, knowledge acquisition, and information dissemination.
Contextual Factors: These encompass strategic marketing initiatives, the adoption of a decentralized tourism development approach, careful attention to cultural, local, and national identity, and the effective leveraging of experiences gained from other rural areas across Iran.
Intervening Factors: Critical elements in this category are strong support for creativity in tourism, integrated management practices among various organizations, streamlined planning and administration, proactive resolution of legal and regulatory barriers, and comprehensive infrastructure development.
Strategic Approaches: Key strategies involve establishing effective platforms for discourse in tourism development, developing comprehensive foresight scenarios for managerial decisions, unequivocally recognizing the importance of expanding food tourism, and fostering active community participation.
Outcomes: The desired outcomes include enhanced rural settlement sustainability, the equitable distribution of tourism benefits among all stakeholders, and substantial capacity-building for local skills development.
Challenges: Significant challenges identified are inefficiencies within organizational structures, fragmented and sectoral perspectives on tourism projects, persistent political barriers, and a notable lack of appropriate focus on strategic planning for food tourism.

These factors collectively illustrate the complexities inherent in, and the potential solutions for, achieving sustainable food tourism development within Gilan's rural communities.
 
Discussion and Conclusion
A significant portion of the stagnation and underdevelopment observed in food tourism within the rural areas of Gilan Province stems from highly centralized governance, a characteristic that extends to both general tourism and broader rural management. This approach signifies a concentration of decision-making power within the dominant political structure, which inherently resists any form of power distribution or decentralization beyond the national level—whether in policy formulation or implementation across different regional and local entities. The consequences of such centralization and bureaucratic governance in tourism-related organizations have resulted in a loss of local autonomy and a highly complex participation process. In reality, the successful implementation of tourism projects, particularly those embracing a decentralization approach, necessitates robust coordination among various organizations, such as the Housing Foundation, Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, and other relevant agencies. To achieve effective collaboration, a stable and structured communication network must be established and consistently maintained among these organizations, ensuring that responsibilities are distributed in a manner that optimally utilizes the capabilities present at different governmental levels. Furthermore, rural governance in Gilan tends to be overtly centralized, with local administrators often assuming a paternalistic guardianship over rural communities. They frequently implement tourism policies and programs without genuinely consulting or involving local youth, women, men, or even children. Thus, achieving sustainable food tourism development in Gilan's villages fundamentally requires that tourism reformists and policymakers wholeheartedly embrace decentralization and sustainable development strategies. They must transcend rigid professionalism, cultural conservatism, and narrowly defined, value-oriented expertise, and instead actively engage in dialogue with rural residents and even tourists, learning directly from their lived experiences.