Investigating the Challenges of Rural Tourism Development from the Viewpoints of People Living in Target Tourism Rural of West Azarbaijan Province

The purpose of this study was to investigate challenges of rural tourism development from the viewpoints of people living in target tourism rural of West Azarbaijan province. The statistical population consisted of people living in target tourism rural of West Azarbaijan province. The specimen volume was determined as 381 persons through Cochran formula and the proportional allocation sampling method was used to choose the specimen. A questionnaire was developed for gathering data. Face validity of the instrument was determined by related experts. The average Cronbach's alpha computed to measure reliability of different parts of questionnaire was above 0.7 for total segments. The data analysed by SPSS. The findings revealed that Unsuitable roads and routes, Poor residential centers and in cold climate are main problems in the area of rural tourism development. Moreover, based on the results of factor analysis, the challenges of rural tourism development are classified into six factors, viz., sanitary problems, Management and planning problems, Infrastructure problems and etc. Also based on the findings, there is a significant relation between, Management and planning problems, Infrastructure problems, Socio-cultural problems and economical problems while about 92 percents of Composite Index of Rural Tourism Development was parted regarding to these factors