Analysis and Measurement of Effective Barriers to the Realization of Rural Tourism Sustainability (Case Study: Awraman District in Sarvabad County)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 ŮŽAssociate professor in Geography and rural planning , Payame Noor University, Tehran ,Iran.

2 Associate professor in geography and rural planing, pnu university, tehran,iran

3 M.A in geography and rural planning, Payame Noor University, Secretary of Education in Kurdistan Province

Abstract

1. Introduction
In the present age, the dominant paradigm and the main goal of implementing rural development programs is the realization of sustainability. In the meantime, rural tourism is one of the activities that has been welcomed by the people in recent years, and among expanded rural areas, it is necessary to adopt this approach to maintain positive effects and prevent the spread of disturbing tourism.
One of the important axes of rural tourism in the country is the Oraman village of Sarvabad county in the west of Kurdistan province. These villages, which have much potential in the field of tourism, are one of the tourism poles of the province and country, which annually attracts a large number of domestic and foreign tourists. Despite the many potentials for tourism in the region, home-grower, and labor force workers still migrate out of the village and large cities for employment, and poverty, lack of services and facilities, and environmental degradation can be realized in the villages' region.
Now, the main issue that is addressed in this study this is ,why based on past research and field visits, and interviews with villagers, rural tourism in the Oraman region has not been able to become a form of sustainable tourism to lay the groundwork for the economic and social development of the villagers in the region. In this regard, the research questions are as follows:
- What are the most important obstacles to the formation of sustainable tourism in Oraman region?and Which of the obstacles creates the highest level of instability? .
- Which of the identified barriers has the most impact on the current unfavorable situation of tourism sustainability in the villages of the region?

2. Methodology
The present applied research is conducted by descriptive-analytical method and by collecting information in two theoretical and field sections based on the distribution of questionnaires, observation, and semi-structured interviews seeking to identify the most important factors affecting tourism sustainability in rural areas of Oraman as one of the tourism destinations in the country, which despite many potentials, tourism still has not a great role to play in the sustainable development of the villages in the region.The statistical population, which is a combination of both quantitative and qualitative approaches, is local people, on the one hand, and on the other hand, tourism area experts, service providers, and rural development officials. Firstly, by explorative method and using snowball sampling method, in the qualitative section, the most important barriers affecting Oraman tourism sustainability were identified by using semi-structured interviews with the group of service owners, specialists, and authorities with the fundamental theory technique analyzed. In the next stage, by using inferential statistics (researcher-made and random sampling), 250 heads of household out of 3707 by the Cochran method were determined..

3. Results
The results of the t statistic with a calculated average of 3/63 and with 99% confidence show that there are deficiencies and obstacles and physical and environmental challenges for sustainability in Oraman region.. the positive value of the upper and lower statistics, along with the desirable statistical value T, at the level of significance of 0/001, confirms the existence of economic disadvantage as a barrier and a challenge to the progression of tourism sustainability in the village of Oraman.On the other hand, the identified barriers and challenges, namely, institutional weaknesses, average 3/48 at a significance level of 0/001 with a confidence of 99% indicating that this dimension and identified variables are also challenged and the obstacle to the realization of Oraman tourism sustainability was approved and accepted. The dimension of social deficiencies with a mean of 3/39 at a significant level of 0/001 and 99% confidence, was acknowledged as another dimension and an obstacle to the realization of the sustainable tourism of the Oraman region.
4.Discussion
The results of the study summarize the most important obstacles and challenges facing sustainable tourism of rural tourism in the region of Oraman in four dimensions economic failure, social failure, inadequacies and institutional weaknesses, and physical-environmental deficiencies. In the area of peripheral-physical disadvantages; degradation of the natural environment and rural landscape, inappropriate quality of tourism attractions, lack of transport infrastructure, and lack of services and facilities; in the area of economic failures, poor quality of employment, Weakness in income and prices, motivation and low willingness of visitors to visit; in the area of institutional failure, undesirable performance of public institutions; and in social dimension, weakness in the participation of local people; and weakness in advertising, information and education are effective factors on undesirable performance of regional tourism system and instability that lack of attention and favorable monitoring of the regional government with /468 has the greatest impact

5. Conclusions
The general result of the research indicates that, the current conditions of tourism in the region place the sustainability status of tourism in a moderate degree of instability, and the Butler and Doxy combination model is in a situation that proposes two scenarios; first, the unsustainable situation continues, and in fact, the region has reached the complete tourist instability, and secondly, recovery and rehabilitation scenario. In the latter, plans must be made to exit the existing stagnation and instability to revitalize tourism in the region.

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 10 December 2023
  • Receive Date: 15 February 2023
  • Revise Date: 19 November 2023
  • Accept Date: 30 November 2023