An Analysis of the Potentials of the Development of Tourism Industry in Rural Areas with an Emphasis on Social Capital

مهدی چراغی ¹ (دانشگاه زنجان)
Behrouz Mohammadi yeganeh ² (University of Zanjan)
nasrin saeedi ³ (University of Zanjan)

Submited date : 2017-03-18 accepted date : 2017-09-24

Keywords: Social capital, Rural Development, Sustainable Tourism,

Abstract :

Rural tourism as a specific kind of tourism is able to solve a great deal of urban areas’ problems such as poverty and unemployment, if it is organized and planned as regards social, cultural and financial features, needs and issues. Profiting from the effects and results of rural tourism needs the evaluation and studying of the potential of areas for tourism development. The nature and methodology of the present study, is descriptive-analytical. Using the factors in table 1, this research has considered evaluating social capital in the area under study, based on the four indexes and forty items. The local territory is the Dastjerde rural district in Tarom township located in Zanjan. This rural district in the 2012 census, has been reported to have 13 villages, 2083 households, and 7309 population. In order to specify the sample size, the Cochran formula has been used and 280 households has been selected as the sample number. The results from the study show that the status of rural capital in the villages under study is in a proper level for attracting tourists and the social cooperation is closely linked to social capital.