Process of Rural Second Homes Formation and Factors Affecting it (Case Study: Summer Villages in West of Mashhad)

To escape different effects of environmental pollution, residents of urban areas try to spend part of their time in quiet, untapped nature. Thus tourism in the form of rural second homes is a recent phenomenon which has affected rural areas, especially in summer villages around Mashhad. Mashhad, as the second religious metropolis in Iran, has experienced radical population changes and expansion of physical texture, so that its violent expansion after Islamic Revolution has had second consequences which are prevalent in metropolis cities. Therefore, people residuary in Mashhad would need some locations to spend their leisure time. Those locations should be in near distance to Mashhad and they should also provide a quiet place when weekends in the city are noisy. This study tries to investigate the process of rural second homes formation as well as the factors affecting on it in the study area, namely summer villages in west of Mashhad, so that the finding results could be used in future plans for second homes in the studied area. Research method in this study is a descriptive- analytical one, part of the required data are collected through field method (questionnaire). The questionnaires data are collected from councils and municipalities of 24 villages and 238 households, using Cochrane formula. The study area is approximately 1160 square kilometers located in northern outskirt of Binalood Mountains, in southwest and west of Mashhad which includes two urban spot (Torghabeh and Shandiz) and 60 villages with a population of 30,772 in 2006. After data collection and processing in software environments SPSS, ArcGIS etc, the data and the issue addressed in this study, have been analyzed. Initial research question is that given the relatively small distance between rural settlements and the city of Mashhad, if there is a connection between this problem and what have rolled other factors in the formation of rural second homes in the area. Therefore the present study is looking for answering the above mentioned question and estimating the formation of homes in various intervals in the area. A few scholars have conducted some studies on rural second home tourism. Some of them are as follows: Rezvani: He believes that the emergence of this phenomenon and its rapid growth is related to social and economic changes in the country as well as in Tehran, and is especially consistent with this city's physical development, population growth and environmental pollutions. Some other pay to undesirable consequences such as water pollution, destruction of natural perspectives, destruction and change of agricultural lands and orchards, increased immigration, recession agriculture and polarized social activities due to rural second homes of tourism. Survey of population changes in villages of the studying area during 1956 to 2006 reveals that in all of the mentioned periods, the annual growth rate of the rural population was lower than average growth rate of the country. Nevertheless, huge population movements during 1986-96 which dragged large population from rural areas to the urban ones in Mashhad should not be ignored. 2525 rural second homes have been identified in 2009, in which Torghabeh with 39.2% and Jaghargh with 12.1% were respectively in the highest and lowest rank. In spatial distribution of houses in study area villages, Zoshk with 500 second homes (84.4 percent of the total home) and Kang village with 10 second homes (2.1 percent of the total homes in village) had the greatest and the lowest rank respectively. Totally speaking, villagers in Kang, Noghondar, Dehbar, Sarasiyab and Gerakhk, despite their large population, could not be respective of second homes because of their restricted social contexts. Results show that appearance of rural second homes in Mashhad rural areas dates back to 1990and 2000s. So that the most significant results between second homes number and annual population growth rate belonged to years between 1996 and 2006 with r=0.228 (r=regression), which reveals that most of the second homes are constructed after 2001. There is weak significant relationship between number of houses and the village's natural location (r=-0.215). This means that the more one goes to the mountainous villages, the less becomes the number of second homes. The relation between numbers of homes and non-native owners in the village is the most significant one, which has a regression of r=0.994. Thus, contrary to the results of the lost studies on appearance of second homes in rural dears in which the role of owners were very significant, in the study area the roles of the non-natives are of prime importance. Rural tourism and Ecotourism of Mashhad residents with a relatively long history, in the form of construction of second homes or vacation homes in the summer areas (south west Mashhad) has a little history, this is why, at the same time expanding the physical texture of Mashhad in two decades, despite recent and consequently environmental pollutants in urban areas, formation of this phenomenon in the 2000 decade growing, has, in such a way that today almost all the villages and north hillside of Binalood and West of Mashhad (as the fields of Austria Leisure), see second homes and expanding their presence is expanding. Results show that: 1. The process of emergence of second homes in the study area shows that the emergence and formation history of the homes in villages is relatively small, so that about two-thirds (64.4 percent) of homes in the decade 2000, namely less than 8 years ago in the study villages were constructed. 2. Based on the research findings, a direct relationship doesnt exist between natural factors such as inequality, climate, water, soil and vegetation and the number of second homes in rural study, so that the highest correlation coefficient between the natural situation of village and the number of second homes have non acceptable level significant is. 3. Studying the relationship between the number of houses and villages away from the Mashhad, the significant level of correlation coefficient equal r=0.04 and cant be analyzed. Therefore, the maximum distance of 30 km. rural roads and access to appropriate, the possibility of a significant relationship between the number of houses and then there is no distance from the city of Mashhad. 4. The results showed that there is a significant relationship (r=0.944) between the presence of non-native owners and second homes in the villages. Physical development of Mashhad, the consequences resulting from urbanization (development of various environmental pollutants in cities) and market boom resulting from land and housing in the years after 2006 this hypothesis does not profe. Finally, based on the initial questions and possible hypotheses, can be expressed that among various factors in process of formation the second homes in summer villages of Mashhad, regard to the results, only the role of non-native owners is prominent and important, afterwards, large and small villages (the number of residential homes) have been established a direct linear relationship with the number of second homes. Therefore, it was supposed to default after the initial communication, good natural conditions and especially the presence of local owners operating in the region is construction of second homes, not to prove this hypothesis.