Rural Tourism: In Search of Sustainable Development

Purpose: In this paper, we explain how new trends in tourism field studies could have an impact in sustainable social development. Rural tourism and ecotourism, as guidelines for development in rural regions, encounter a variety of challenges. One of the most pertinent challenges is to evaluate sustainability in the context of rural tourism and ecotourism. This case study was undertaken on Hajij village, an undeveloped village in Iran, located in the Awraman region and it describes the relation between tourism and social development in Hajij village and explains how tourism as a science affects sustainable social development. Design/methodology/approach: In this work, we have used the field study method as well as the questionnaire technique to collect and analyze data. The mode of sampling was chosen to be purpose sampling and the responses of ۸۷ local questionnaire participants were collected and studied. Findings: The results prove that ecotourism development is currently in the process of both economic and social developments. Not to mention the continuation of ecotourism growth will result in a sustainable development by facilitating the income growth and increasing capability in the conservation of the environmental, cultural and social sources. Originality/value: In this study, we try to explain the complexity of the concept of sustainability as well as evaluate it with a practical example. Introducing a novel method of separating the effects of ecotourism growth in economic and social developments was another approach of this paper. Future studies can be conducted to complete this method of assessment.

کلیدواژه ها:

Economic Development ، Socio-Economic Environment ، Economic Sociology ، Ecotourism