Introduction

Rural tourism businesses are a key strategy for achieving sustainable development goals, creating jobs, reducing poverty, curbing irregular migration, and revitalizing the cultural and environmental conditions of these areas. This dynamic sector can become the economic engine of rural communities. In this regard, rural community policymaking plays a crucial role in guiding, facilitating, and ensuring the sustainability of rural tourism business development. The purpose of this study is to examine the evaluation of rural tourism business policymaking from the perspective of stakeholders in coastal villages of Chabahar County.



Materials and Methods

This research is based on a combination of descriptive-analytical methods and based on library and documentary studies. The statistical population of this research includes residents of coastal villages in Chabahar County. Data analysis was carried out with the help of SPSS, ArcGIS software, and using Swara, EDAS models, and one-sample T-tests, Pearson, and linear regression.



Results and Discussion

The research findings show that the existing policy-making has not been balanced; so that indicators such as exploiting local potential and developing seasonal markets are in a relatively favorable situation, but fundamental indicators such as branding, digital marketing, training in entrepreneurial skills and, most importantly, creating an efficient institutional structure have been evaluated at the lowest level. Also, based on the results of the EDAS model, it shows significant heterogeneity in the level of success of local policy-making between different villages, and based on the results of the model, the villages of Remin and Tis were in a relatively better situation compared to the villages of Pasabender and Brice. Although the results of the regression analysis show a positive and significant relationship between policy-making and business development, the low coefficient of determination (18%) indicates the fact that factors beyond the framework of these policies, such as macroeconomic and climatic conditions, have a major contribution to determining the fate of tourism in this region. Therefore, the final conclusion suggests that rural tourism development in Chabahar is in a “vicious cycle”: institutional weakness leads to weakness in financial support and marketing; this in turn hinders business growth and community empowerment, and ultimately drives development towards quick-payoff and often unsustainable physical projects. Breaking out of this vicious cycle requires a fundamental paradigm shift in which “local governance reform and administrative simplification” are placed as the first priority, “investment in human resource training and branding” as the second priority, and “moving from purely physical development to smart, identity-based, and sustainable development” as the third priority.



Conclusions

The picture of rural tourism policymaking in the coastal villages of Chabahar is an unbalanced and quantitative picture in which policies are mainly focused on exploiting existing and obvious potentials and have distanced themselves from a strategic, qualitative and sustainable perspective. On the other hand, the findings clearly indicate that current policies have not been able to effectively strengthen tourism businesses. The overall conclusion indicates an urgent need to change the approach and formulate integrated, participatory and practical policies that simultaneously focus on community empowerment, smart marketing and reforming local institutions.



Introduction

Rural tourism businesses are a key strategy for achieving sustainable development goals, creating jobs, reducing poverty, curbing irregular migration, and revitalizing the cultural and environmental conditions of these areas. This dynamic sector can become the economic engine of rural communities. In this regard, rural community policymaking plays a crucial role in guiding, facilitating, and ensuring the sustainability of rural tourism business development. The purpose of this study is to examine the evaluation of rural tourism business policymaking from the perspective of stakeholders in coastal villages of Chabahar County.



Materials and Methods

This research is based on a combination of descriptive-analytical methods and based on library and documentary studies. The statistical population of this research includes residents of coastal villages in Chabahar County. Data analysis was carried out with the help of SPSS, ArcGIS software, and using Swara, EDAS models, and one-sample T-tests, Pearson, and linear regression.



Results and Discussion

The research findings show that the existing policy-making has not been balanced; so that indicators such as exploiting local potential and developing seasonal markets are in a relatively favorable situation, but fundamental indicators such as branding, digital marketing, training in entrepreneurial skills and, most importantly, creating an efficient institutional structure have been evaluated at the lowest level. Also, based on the results of the EDAS model, it shows significant heterogeneity in the level of success of local policy-making between different villages, and based on the results of the model, the villages of Remin and Tis were in a relatively better situation compared to the villages of Pasabender and Brice. Although the results of the regression analysis show a positive and significant relationship between policy-making and business development, the low coefficient of determination (18%) indicates the fact that factors beyond the framework of these policies, such as macroeconomic and climatic conditions, have a major contribution to determining the fate of tourism in this region. Therefore, the final conclusion suggests that rural tourism development in Chabahar is in a “vicious cycle”: institutional weakness leads to weakness in financial support and marketing; this in turn hinders business growth and community empowerment, and ultimately drives development towards quick-payoff and often unsustainable physical projects. Breaking out of this vicious cycle requires a fundamental paradigm shift in which “local governance reform and administrative simplification” are placed as the first priority, “investment in human resource training and branding” as the second priority, and “moving from purely physical development to smart, identity-based, and sustainable development” as the third priority.



Conclusions

The picture of rural tourism policymaking in the coastal villages of Chabahar is an unbalanced and quantitative picture in which policies are mainly focused on exploiting existing and obvious potentials and have distanced themselves from a strategic, qualitative and sustainable perspective. On the other hand, the findings clearly indicate that current policies have not been able to effectively strengthen tourism businesses. The overall conclusion indicates an urgent need to change the approach and formulate integrated, participatory and practical policies that simultaneously focus on community empowerment, smart marketing and reforming local institutions.