A Study of the Effect of Social Capital on the Tendency of Tourists in Visiting a Place (Case Study: city of Yasooj)

Many studies have suggested that development and promotion of tourism is a source of new employment، revenues، additional tax receipts، foreign exchange benefits، and enhances community infrastructure that will، in turn، attract other industries. Tourists'' entrance to a country، either in national or in regional level، not only، can increase currency income، tax، employment and economic factors، but also، can lead to regional development and encouraging the investment in diverse parts of society. In this way، tourism is a powerful way for national development. The tourism income is one of important factor for providing financial resources for other infrastructure parts of the society. Tourism is a multidimensional issue، which has communication with various factors، organizations and institutes. The most active elements in tourism industry include governmental organizations، private sections (merchants and investors) non-governmental organizations and international organizations، universities and academic institutes (educational institutes)، tourists، host people، and tourist destination (tourism attraction). These active factors are playing key roles in tourism development، interactively. It might be claimed that a lack of useful relationship and coordination between the mentioned factors، prevents Iran''s tourism industry development and achievement، while it has international situation and potentials in tourism. Tourism industry can be used as a dynamic industry، besides other activities and services for approaching economic، social، political and cultural aims. Long times ago، cities were the most important regions for tourism industry، but urban places attraction is not enough for tourism development. Therefore it is necessary that other pillars and factors related to tourism industry including organizations، institutions and also people of the society of tourism destination provide some conditions for attracting tourists from other areas and countries. Tourism industry has been changed from a local and intra-border activity to an international and effective phenomenon in economic، cultural and political، universal dimensions، during past 50 years. Tourism is considered as a new industry، greatly، and maybe inadequate familiarity and knowledge about tourism are the main reasons for not paying enough attention to this industry in many third world societies. Accompanying with the development of tourism industry، different sciences، especially human and social sciences، have been done a large body of studies about the impacts of human relationship and interactions on the development and evolution of this industry. The notion of social capital، as a sociological notion، has been studied in dealt with tourism industry. In this regard، the effect of social capital on host society tendency to tourist entrance has been evaluated in this study. Social capital، rarely، being used in tourism studies and has not been considerable attention to the role of social capital in development of tourism purposes. All of studies have same view that social capital is an important factor in extending social participation and local tourism industry development. Tendency of host people to tourist entrance، paper as an important factor for tourism development، has been evaluated in this paper. The behavior and action of host society''s residents in cooperation with tourists will have considerable effect in tourism industry، undoubtedly. Yasouj is one of southwestern cities of Iran. It is the capital of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad Province and has been located in cool climate. Existing relatively high degree of raining and sowing، Yasouj has great water resources. The Yasouj waterfall is the most important tourism attraction is the Yasouj city، which located 2 kms faraway from its north side and attract Iranian and foreign tourists. Mehreyan strait and Kakan sky pist are the other important tourism places. According to increasing of tourist''s entrance to Yasouj during recent years، this research aimed to study the effect of factors such as social capital، age، gender، of Yasouj residents on their tendency towards tourist entrance. Using survey method، based on Lin sampling table (Lin، 1976)، 382 persons were estimated as sample size and selected by classified multi-stage random sampling method. The research tool for gathering data was the researcher-made questionnaire. The construct validity with factorial analysis method and Coronboach Alpha were used، respectively، for evaluation of validity and reliability of questionnaire. The data were analyzed via SPSS software. Descriptive statistics (frequency، percent and average) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient، independent samples T test، two variables and multi variables regression) were used for data analysis. Findings showed that there was significant relationship between social capital، age، (independent variables) and tendency towards tourist''s entrance. There was a significant relationship between dependent variable and variables such as gender and marital situation. Independent variables، totally، have been explained more than 5. 8 percentages of dependent variable''s variance.