نقش گردشگری مبتنی بر خانه‌های دوم در مدیریت بحران با رویکرد تاب‌آوری: مطالعه موردی روستاهای زلزله‌زده شهرستان آوج

Introduction

Tourism, as a socio-economic activity based on location and its characteristics, is one of the most vulnerable and defenseless economic sectors against natural disasters and the resulting crises. In addition, rural tourism is classified by most experts as a small and medium-scale economic business, which, due to its specific nature and the direct connection of rural areas with their surrounding environment, has a higher level of vulnerability to environmental and social changes such as natural and man-made disasters. Also, according to some experts, the tourism industry and its facilities can be seen as a tool for crisis management that can be used as a strategic tool for the reconstruction, recovery and resilience of disaster-affected destinations. So, the International Bureau for Disaster Risk Reduction introduces tourism as one of the key industries in shaping potential efforts to reduce the risks of natural disasters and facilitate the development of the affected community after the disaster. So that, tourism infrastructure, sites and facilities at the time of disaster and the resulting crisis can be considered as an effective tool to support emergency relief and rescue management in affected rural destinations. Also, rural tourism, due to its special characteristics such as having small businesses and low need for large investments, high ability to attract aid and financial resources, can effectively contribute to the resilience of rural destinations affected by natural disasters during the reconstruction and recovery phase by providing job opportunities and creating suitable areas for earning income. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate and scientifically explore the role of tourism in the earthquake disaster crisis management process with a post-disaster resilience approach in tourist-friendly villages.



Methodology

The present study is applied in terms of purpose and quantitative in nature, and the required data and information were collected using field methods based on direct observation and a closed questionnaire. So that, after examining the theoretical foundations and extracting indicators and items, a closed questionnaire was developed using a 5-level Likert scale. To analyze the collected data, quantitative statistical tests such as one-sample t, Spearman correlation, and multivariate regression were used. The statistical population of the study includes all villages with second tourist homes (at least 20 percent of the total village housing) located within the political boundaries of Avaj Township (Qazvin Province). So that, through field surveys and observation and obtaining information from local managers, 16 villages (with 4250 households and 18000 people), which are mainly located in the mountainous part of Avaj Township, were selected as samples. At the household level, using the Cochran formula and assuming p and q values of 0.5, 352 cases were selected as a sample and a questionnaire developed in cooperation with the village head of the sample villages was distributed using simple random sampling.



Findings

In the present study, a single-sample t-test was used to examine the desirability of resilience indicators in socio-cultural, economic, and physical dimensions. The results of the analysis, considering the numerical mean values, showed that all the indicators under study had a mean higher than 3 (expected numerical desirability of 3 as the mean of the 5-level Likert spectrum) and a significant difference was seen in all the research indicators at the 99% level, and their difference from numerical desirability was also evaluated and estimated positively. Also, the physical dimension of rural resilience with a numerical mean of 4.6103 has received the greatest impact from tourism development. The economic dimension of rural resilience with a numerical mean of 3.3660 is in second place and socio-cultural resilience with a numerical mean of 3.074 is in third place in terms of importance. Therefore, it can be said that the development of rural tourism has played an important role in achieving rural resilience, given its positive impact on the process of reconstruction and recovery of damaged villages. Also, the results of correlation analysis showed that there is a significant relationship at the 99% level between the effects of rural tourism development and physical, economic, and socio-cultural resilience, with correlation coefficients of 0.710, 0.552, and 0.375, respectively.

In addition, the study of the regression model showed that the effect of rural tourism development has a positive effect of 0.95% on the post-earthquake resilience index in the sample villages. So that, according to the f statistic of 368.20, the linear relationship between the effects of tourism development and the post-earthquake resilience index in the studied villages is significant. Also, the ß values indicate the fact that among the four indicators studied regarding the role of tourism in the resilience of rural settlements in the region from the perspective of permanent residents and local people, physical indicators (0.405) have the highest impact and socio-cultural indicators (0.202) have the lowest impact on rural resilience.



Discussion and Conclusion

The results of the present study indicate the positive and significant impact of rural tourism in managing crises resulting from natural disasters in rural areas. So that the analysis of questionnaire data showed that tourist villages, in addition to using the compensation budget provided by the government to rebuild damaged structures, have effectively contributed to improving resilience indicators in various dimensions by attracting private capital from individuals in the form of building and developing second tourist homes and developing small businesses, while accelerating post-disaster reconstruction. So that the physical, economic, and socio-cultural dimensions of rural resilience have respectively accepted the greatest impact on the effect of tourism development in the studied villages. Also, there is a significant linear relationship between the effects of tourism development and the resilience index after the 2002 earthquake in the sample villages, so that from the perspective of permanent residents and local people, physical indicators have accepted the greatest impact on the development of rural tourism in the reconstruction process and consequently on resilience after the 2002 earthquake in tourist villages. The findings of the present study are consistent with the studies of Aziri et al. (2024), Marakhani et al. (2025) on the role of tourism in the physical and economic resilience of tourism target villages. The results of the study are also consistent with the findings of Ziaee et al. (2021) and Asadi and Jabbari (2022) on the effectiveness of tourism in crisis management and promoting the economic resilience of the community. On the other hand, the results of the study are consistent with the findings of Jiang and Ritchie (2017), Hall et al. (2018), Lin et al. (2021), Goucher et al. (2024), Sapatra et al. (2023) and Aithal et al. (2023) on the effectiveness of tourism in disaster crisis management and achieving resilience. Therefore, according to the results of the study, the following are recommended to improve and promote rural resilience in the study area:

- Appropriate management of tourism development, especially second homes, with continuous monitoring by local authorities to protect attractions and prevent unnecessary land use changes

- Participatory management of tourism development considering the relative vulnerability of the region to geophysical disasters in order to reduce the root effects of physical vulnerability

- Financial, insurance and marketing support for entrepreneurs in the tourism sector in order to diversify the rural economy