گردشگری و اوقات فراغت (Jan 2024)
Analysis of Factors Influencing the Development of Community-Based Tourism in Rural Areas, Case Study: Villages Targeted by Tourism in the Markazi Province
Abstract
At the end of the 20th century, many socio-economic planners have introduced tourism as one of the reliable strategies with a very clear perspective for rural development, especially in developing countries. But the basic issue is that the local community has limited benefit from this tourism and has very little participation in this field. Therefore, community-based tourism can benefit rural people from tourism in addition to preserving natural and cultural resources. Thus, the aim of the present research is to find the variables affecting community-based tourism in the target villages of Markazi Province. The method of conducting this research was qualitative and was done using the content analysis method, and the data was analyzed using MAXQDA version 20 software. The results show that the source of non-establishment of community-based tourism development in the studied area is the management-structural, environmental, socio-cultural and economic factors. But the most important factor for the development of this activity is the managerial-structural components. Because by using correct and principled management, on one hand, the local community can be educated and prepared to receive tourists, and on the other hand, by providing infrastructure (such as residences, roads, restaurants, parking lots, recreational spaces, etc.) the basic conditions for entry It created tourists. Then it is possible to help the development of community-based tourism in the studied area by observing environmental principles, socio-cultural sustainability and economic growth. 1. Introduction Today, tourism has become a powerful tool that can have good economic, social and environmental effects in different countries. The structure of this system can accelerate the flow of tourism economic factors in susceptible areas, including: capital, technology, facilities and information through the spillover effect and radiation effect. Therefore, the development of tourism can contribute to the economic growth of any region. But this activity has worked in the opposite direction in developing countries and has led to the decline of the local society. In some areas, at first, it acts as a source for increasing income and improving the livelihood of the local community, but with the passage of time, this income stream has changed and the benefits of tourism go to foreigners. Therefore, in order for the local community to share the benefits of tourism in each region, it is necessary to evaluate the context and capacities of the community to set up and monitor tourism associations, which are considered in community-based tourism. Community-based tourism, along with following values, norms, social laws, preserving ethnic identity, transferring cultural heritage in all its fields to future generations (social development), has been able to help reduce poverty by creating employment and earning income. and cause economic and commercial development. In general, community-based tourism is one of the ways of rural development that has been proposed in recent years as one of the activities in line with agriculture in rural areas of the country. The study area of the research, the target villages for tourism in the central province, has created a suitable place for the residents of these cities to spend their free time. This attention of tourists has positive and negative aspects. The positive points have been the increase in tourism tours and the negative effects of the destruction of the rural environment. In this way, many cars and motorcycles have gone to the virgin nature, which on the one hand has caused the destruction of some special vegetation in these areas and on the other hand has caused soil erosion. Therefore, due to the fact that they did not involve the villagers in the planning of tourism in these areas, these areas have suffered a lot of damage. For this reason, this research seeks to identify the components that have an impact on the implementation of community-based tourism in the target villages of Central Province. 2. Literature Review Before the 1980s, the approach of tourism development programs was top-down. This approach failed due to reasons such as: not paying attention to the demands of the local community and incompatibility with their socio-cultural conditions. In this approach, despite the fact that a lot of income was injected into the local areas, only certain groups and individuals benefited from it and the local community did not benefit much. For this reason, many criticisms about the lack of access of the local community to the benefits of tourism led to public attention being focused on the environmental and social effects of mass tourism. Therefore, some researchers raised the issue that if alternative solutions for mass tourism are considered, tourism has the ability to develop local communities. The basic condition of this goal was the inclusion of the local community in all stages of tourism decision-making. Since then, community-based tourism has been gradually formed. Planning in the community-based tourism approach is in the form of "bottom-up planning" that emphasizes development within the community. Therefore, one of the basic axes is that the local community should control the planning process and adjust their goals and plans based on it. Therefore, community-based tourism seeks to empower people, increase residents' participation in the decision-making process and distribute tourism income. In particular, the financial resources of rural areas should be used to create a self-sufficient society, and accordingly, planning and management should focus on the most effective way of deploying local human capital and other resources, along with the use of indigenous knowledge of the local community and other tools. Officials should be focused in planning, with the support of regional and national authorities. 3. Methodology The current study is a qualitative research that was conducted using the content analysis method. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 25 experts and specialists in the field of study, including: experts of the cultural heritage department, relevant districts, Islamic councils of villages, villagers, rural tourism activists and rural informants in the central province. To determine the research samples, the purposeful and snowball sampling methods were used and the sampling was done in a period of 2 months. Sampling and data collection was based on data saturation (unification of the information provided by the interviewees). At this stage, after interviewing experts and specialists in the field of study in the field of community-based tourism, especially in the target villages of Central Province, the data is the same and has reached saturation. The data was analyzed by MAXQDA version 20 software. 4. Results A semi-structured interview was used to identify factors and indicators affecting the development of community-based tourism in the target villages of Central Province. Sampling for interviews was done through the snowball method, and after interviewing 25 local experts, data saturation was achieved. Of these 25 people, 21 people (84%) are men and 4 people (16%) are women. Out of the total number of interviewees, 6 people (24%) have diplomas and post-diplomas, 11 people (44%) have bachelors, 6 people (24%) have post-graduate degrees, and 2 people (8%) have PhDs. The approximate time of each interview was 33 minutes, and note-taking and audio recording were used to collect data. The information has been processed and coded based on line-by-line analysis technique in MAXQDAversion 20 software. Based on the analysis done in the qualitative software MAXQDA, 4 dimensions and 24 indicators were extracted from the text of these interviews. According to the output of data analysis in this software, 4 managerial-infrastructural, environmental, socio-cultural and economic dimensions were identified. In the target villages of Central Province, one of the most important and effective aspects that have caused community-based tourism to not be implemented is the lack of proper and principled management. One of the management factors is education, which is considered a useful investment and a key factor in development, and if it is planned and implemented in a principled way, it can have high efficiency in different dimensions. In the studied area, one of the factors of the decline of community-based tourism is the lack of education both in the host community and among tourists. Not having enough knowledge about the benefits of tourism has caused the rural people to not care about tourism. The next factor, which is very weak in the target villages of Central Province, is the lack or even lack of suitable infrastructure for tourism development. As mentioned in all the interviews. Therefore, the most basic action in the field of tourism is to create its infrastructure. The next effective factor is the performance of the government and the use of principled planning. But unfortunately, this has not been done in Central Province. Another very important factor in the development of community-based tourism is environmental planning. It is very important how the protection of the environment, wildlife, sewage disposal system, waste management is done. In this field, there has been some improvement in the villages. Cultivation in this field has been done both among the tourists and the local community. But again, because some tourists do not comply and leave their garbage in the nature, it causes the efforts of people who pay special attention to this matter to be ignored. Other factors that play a relatively important role in the development of community-based tourism in target villages are attractiveness of tourist attractions, capacity and potential of tourism and geographical location. These villages have good potential to attract tourism. But the important point is that some factors, such as the personal nature of some attractions and their permanent unavailability, have caused them to simply assign the name of the attraction to it, and in practice, their use and exploitation is very limited. This has reduced the attractiveness of tourist attractions. It should also be said that due to the lack of employment and income in the rural society, very few people are staying in the villages. Because they do not have enough income, they have to migrate to other areas. Tourism damage is another factor that has caused the decline of tourism, so in this field, successful villages can be modeled in the field of tourism. But unfortunately, this action has not been taken, which is the result of the villagers taking a stand against tourism and their non-participation in this activity. Because tourists do not have a suitable space to spend their free time in the villages, after spending some time there, they go to the gardens of the villagers where their crops of one year are located and tamper with their crops. These factors have caused the non-participation of villagers in the field of tourism. The final point is that tourism can cause economic changes in any rural area. But unfortunately, in the target villages of the central province, it has very little effect and in some areas it has a negligible effect. In addition to the fact that the tourism economy in these villages was weak, its distribution was not fair. Therefore, the rural community benefits from tourism very little. 5. Conclusion According to the results obtained in the managerial-institutional dimension and the number of codes assigned to this dimension, it can be said that it plays the biggest role in the lack of community-based tourism in these areas. The administrative-institutional dimension has the greatest impact. But despite the great role it has played in community-based tourism, it has not been able to function as it should. But regarding the environmental dimension, it should be said that this sector has a significant impact on community-based tourism. In such a way that 23 people (92 percent) of the interviewees have expressed its importance. Therefore, it can be concluded that environmental planning is very important for community-based tourism. But unfortunately, attention to the environment in the studied area is asymmetric. In the socio-cultural dimension, it should be said that there is a strong relationship between cultural sustainability and participation, and the local community is very vulnerable to the indiscriminate and unprincipled increase in tourism. The results of the current research showed that due to the lack of correct and principled planning in all dimensions, including the cultural dimension, the participation of the local community in tourism was very small. In the economic aspect, it should be said that economic factors are one of the facilitating components of community-based tourism. But in the study area, the incomes from tourism are very low and even insignificant.
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