Delineating and Analysis of the Trust Network of Tourism Sector Practitioners Using Network Analysis Method (A Case Study: Tabl Village, Qeshm Island)

The social and cultural effects of tourism show that tourism and traveling influencesthe value system, the behavioral patterns, the social structures, and the lifestyle of the host society and the tourist. As one cannot ignore other modern evolutions because of their negative effects, we should try to control their negative consequences through some preparations and to benefit from their positive effects. The same approach should be taken in case of tourism to identify its positive and negative effects. One of the most important social effects of ecotourism is its influence on the social relations and the relation patterns among people in the host society, which has unfortunately been ignored in the research on the social effects of ecotourism. Therefore, thepresent paper intends to investigate the effect of ecotourism on the social relations of ecotourism sector practitioners in Tabl village. Network analysis method was used to carry out the research and the required data were gathered through questionnaire. The networks were delineated and analyzed using Visone and Net Draw softwares and based on the cutpoints, the out degree centrality, and the centrality of the special vector. The results revealed that the practitioners of ecotourism sector in Tabl village, whoare in relation with the tourists andthere is a possibility for them to disconnect their relations with their community under the effect of other cultures, have conserved their relations with their community so that they trust their families in the highest order and their friends and the local trustworthy people were located in the next order. Although the ecotourism has no influence on the relations among relatives, the village network is not coherent and the relations among people are based on the tribalrelations. Therefore, employing people with the high centrality in the network will be helpful to increase trust and cooperation among them.