Explaining Tourism Capacity for the Development of Rural Areas of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province

Statement of the Problem:

 Rural development is an all-embracing, constant, stable, endogenous, inclusive, transformational, creative, growth-promoting process that leans on the participation and self-confidence of the villagers. Within its framework, the cultural, social, and economic capacities and abilities of the communities will grow and excel based on meeting the basic material and spiritual needs and effective control over the forces forming the local housing system and human capital development by taking advantage of internal opportunities in the village. Purpose of the Study: This research aims to explain the tourism capacities for the development of rural areas in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province.

The statistical population of the research is the cultural heritage and tourism experts and other similar specialists as well as the trustees of tourism units in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. The sampling method is a complete enumeration and the data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire in the recent year. Delphi and SWOT methods were used to analyze the data and TOPSIS technique was used to rank the villages.

The final results indicated that the most important tourism capacities in the studied villages include intact natural resorts, enjoyable climate, and especially immaculate nomadic-life attractions, and the most crucial drawbacks of the tourism industry involve the absence of planning, accommodation dearth, and health facility deficiency, combined with the feebleness in tourism culture. In the meantime, the villages of Sar Aghaseyed, Sheikh Alikhan, Dimeh, Avargan, and Atashgah have more capabilities, respectively, and it may be essential to enter them into tourism programing priorities.

Innovation:
 

Scientific methods and techniques for explaining the tourism capacities of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province is the innovation of this research. Also, the tourism capacities of the statistical population studied have not been investigated at this level so far.