Pathology of Tourism Development in Rural Areas of Langrood County with Emphasis on Environmental Impact

Rural areas of Langarud County, which is selected as the under-study zone in the present survey, is one of the most attractive areas in Guilan province and almost always makes the tourism destination of numerous tourists and enthusiasts.

Purpose of the study: 

The main purpose of the present survey is studying the pathology of tourism activities in rural areas of this county.

In the present study, the descriptive-analytic approach was applied. In order to perform the field studies among 193 populated villages, 15 villages were selected as the study samples through purposive and judgmental sampling methods. Local residents and administrative managers and experts of Langarud County comprised the statistical society. The sample volume was estimated to be 342 according to Chocrane method.

Under-Study Zone:

 Rural areas of Langarud County is selected as the under-study zone in the present survey.

The results revealed that booming rural ecotourism activities has led to increased pollution of ecologic resources as well as decreased attraction of landscapes in the under-study rural settlements. Accordingly based on polls by respondents regarding 11 items surveyed in this study, it turned out that the “destruction of village’s natural landscapes” item obtained the weighted average of 4.13 which had the highest significantly meaningful difference, after that “destroying natural and human views due to inappropriate constructions unrelated to village climate” and “threatening rare and vulnerable vegetation species” items which respectively had the weighted averages 3.89 and 3.82 were ranked as second and third vulnerabilities.