Reviewing the effects of promoting the second-home tourism on physical development of rural settlements(Case study: Kelardasht County)

Rural tourism, and consequently second home tourism, can be regarded as the outcome of great economic, social, and cultural development in the society after World War II, such that in our country, especially in mountainous areas beside large cities, also in the shores of Caspian Sea, the number of vacational second homes -primarily used for spending one's leisure time- has significantly increased over last few decades. This study aims at investigating the impact of second home tourism on physical development of rural settlements in Kelardasht County. This is an applied research carried out with a descriptive-analytical method. We benefited library research and field works for data collection. The population included 9 rural settlements situated in Kelardasht County, with a significantly impressive construction of second homes. using Cochran formula, 200 sample households were randomly selected from rural residents and the owners of the rural second homes. Reviewing the dimensions and indices of research variables showed that the highest value in 'promoting rural tourism' (2.50) was related to the village of Paye- qale), and the highest value in the variable of 'physical development of rural settlement's was related to the village of Taeb Kala had (3.09). Besides, the impact intensity of the variable of rural tourism development on physical development of second homes, has been achieved about 40 percent, while it is 44.4 percent in rural communities, and about 24.5 percent among of second home's owners; representing the average impact of second homes tourism on the studied area. According to the step-by-step regression test, in the second step, the index of creating new jobs (with the co-efficient 12 percent), had the highest impact; and the index of new construction (with the co-efficient 8.6 percent) was in the second place, associated with tourism.