An Investigation of Tourism Impact on Qouri Qaleh Village

Abstract

Rural tourism is one of the growing sectors in tourism industry thatcan play an important role in creating jobs, revitalizing rural life andpreserving various historical heritages of rural areas, and ultimatelyshaping an integrated and sustainable development. This paper aims toinvestigate the different socio-economic and environmental impact oftourism on the village of Qouri Qaleh in the province of Kermanshah.This place attracts thousands of tourists annually due to its uniquenatural and historical heritages. The research is based on descriptive –analytical methods. A field work was conducted to collect the requireddata with the help of 150 questionnaires which were distributedamong residents of the village, using random sampling. Data wereanalyzed via SPSS. Results revealed a positive opinion of the ruralresidents about the economic impacts of tourism such as employmentopportunities and increase in people’s income. However, tourismdevelopment has led to land speculation and a rapid land-use changeat the cost of agricultural decline. Also, degradation of environmentby water pollution and overuse of rural natural resources, have creatednew challenges for tourism development in this village. From socialpoint of view there has been a considerable decline in rural urbanmigration, increase in people’s knowledge and improvement of ruralhousing. At the end, the paper presents some recommendations fortourism management and balanced development with respect to thecarrying capacity of the area.

Keywords

• rural development
• socio-economic and environmental impact
• qouri qaleh
• kermanshah. 