Assessment of the Second home tourism role on the quality of life of permanent residents (Case Study: Saeedabad Counnty- Ijrud Township)

Rural tourism as a socio-economic activity can play an important role in diversification of rural economy by creating job and income opportunities; this can also help to improve and enhance the quality of life in rural communities. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of second home tourism in quality of life of permanent residents in rural areas of Saidabad County in Ijrud Township. In this applied research we have used descriptive- analytical methods. For data collection field techniques such as questionnaire and interview were used. For data analyzing, statistical tests such as one sample t-test, correlation and multiple variable regression were used. The sample includes villages in Saidabad County and from the total number of 818 households, 216 cases were chosen. The results of study show that tourism developments in the last decade have had positive impacts on the quality of life measures in rural areas. On the other hand, results of regression according to R square coefficient (0.924), indicates the positive effect of second home tourism development in improving the resident's quality of life indicators in the study area; so that among the impacts of expanding tourism second homes on the quality of life, economic index (0.450) and physical- infrastructural aspects (0.349) respectively have the highest impact and institutional and decision making dimension (0.078) has the least amount of impact on quality of life index from the viewpoint of local residents; and these effects, in all cases are significant at 99% level.