Identifying and Ranking of the Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Rural Tourism (Case Study; Ab Ask Village)

Since tourism and identifying opportunities in the field of entrepreneurship have always been the most well-known rural development strategies, this study aimed to identify and rank the entrepreneurial opportunities in Ab Ask rural tourism in Mazandaran province; which has abundant natural potential and suitable location for business development in rural tourism field; to introduce these opportunities with functional approach to entering tourism industry. This research is descriptive, and integrated approach is used to obtain the answers of their questions. After reviewing the subject history, data collection was done by means of interviewing with the experts and using questionnaire. Assess of the validity content and reliability of each of these eleven-fold opportunities were obtained up to %7. Descriptive and inferential statistics are the statistical methods that used by SPSS19 and LISREL software. Fifty-nine entrepreneurial opportunities in tourism industry in the Ab Ask village were investigated. These opportunities had organized and ranked into eleven groups; hygiene and health category and entertainment and adventure category obtained the highest and the lowest ranks respectively. At the end, to developing entrepreneurial opportunities in the rural tourism of Ab Ask, recommendations were presented.
Tourism is considered as the most important development options in communities. Substantiation of the presence of 20 million tourists and 5.6 million job creation, is according to 20-year prospect and horizon of 2025 of Iran, depend on using of the whole aspects and tourist attractions of the country, including in rural areas. Rural tourism as a form of tourism if the features, requirement and social, cultural and economic problems of local communities, along with attention to tourists demands were planned and organized properly, the major part of the economic problems of rural areas –such as poverty and unemployment- will eliminated. (Ghanian, 2010).
There are many cultural and tourism potentials in Mazandaran province that identifying and optimum using of its can significantly affect the growth and development of cultural, economic and social fields; but lack of appropriate facilities and plan and unwillingness of the private sector to invest in mountain villages and unawareness of tourists caused to not having the appropriate growth and development the tourism industry in villages of Mazandaran province especially in Ab Ask; that is one of the tourism villages with suitable location and tourism attractions. By considering of these subjects based on the importance of the role of tourism on increasing of business of region and necessity of identifying and evaluation of opportunities in order to using of economic, cultural and social benefits of tourism industry, this research seeks to identify and rank the entrepreneurial opportunities in tourism in order to prospering of Ab Ask Village and making occupation for entrepreneurs.
The research methods was combinatorial (qualitative-quantitative). Due to identify the entrepreneurial opportunities in rural tourism industry, 10 interviews were conducted. Then at the next phase, through collecting the quantitative data, validation and classification of opportunities were assessed.
Discussion and Tourism industry can help the local economy. According to study of available resources and interviews with experts, eleven-fold areas of opportunity in rural tourism industry in this investigation are as follows: Accommodation, entertainment and adventure, special events and conferences, food and beverage, tourism services, transportation, hygiene and health, cultural, communication and information, environmental and educational; that hygiene and health opportunities and entertainment and adventure opportunities obtained the highest and the lowest ranks respectively.
It is suggested that by investing in rural infrastructure in the region Ab Ask; which has natural and diverse historical endowments that each of these resources can be the basis of many entrepreneurial activities and it is considered as a sample tourism area of Mazandaran province; so that in addition to short-term benefits in long-term duration, the development and progress of various parts of village is provided and assessing value of the potential of the region will be possible.