Investigating the role of rural tourism in the social and economic development of villages (Case study: villages of Lordegan city, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province)

The tourism industry in rural areas of developing countries has played an important role in the economic and social sustainability of rural areas through diversification of income sources, reduced migration, and so on. Rural tourism is a source of income and plays an important role in the social, economic and environmental development of villages. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of rural tourism in the social and economic development of villages (Case study: villages of Lordegan city, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province). This research is of descriptive-analytical type and has been used by survey and library methods. The statistical population in this study includes villagers living in rural areas of Lordegan city. According to the 1395 census, it has a population of 9027 people and 2512 households. In the study population, Cochran's formula was used and the sample size was 368.37 and for more accuracy, the sample size was 369. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the quantitative reliability of the questionnaire. The alpha value for different parts of the questionnaire was calculated to be 0.74 to 0.80. In order to obtain residents' views on the mentioned components, statistical tests of mean responses and variance and one-sample t-test were used. The results showed that there is a significant relationship between rural tourism and economic and social components of the study. The most important role of rural tourism in the economic and social development of rural areas is that in the economic dimension the income component with an average (-1.36) has the most impact and the poverty component (-1.11) has the lowest and in the social dimension the participation component with the average (-1.33) had the most impact and quality of life component with (-1.11) percent had the least impact on rural tourism.