The Impacts Analysis of Tourism Services Development on Environmental-Physical Instability in Rural Settlements (Case study: Torghabeh County in Binalood City)

Subject Areas : soil pollution

Neshat Omidvar ¹ (Master of Geography and rural planning, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran)
Mahdi Poortaheri ² (Associate Professor of Geography and rural planning, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran)
Abdolreza Roknoddin Eftekhari ³ (Professor of Geography and rural planning, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran)

Received: 2021-05-24 Accepted : 2021-05-24 Published : 2021-03-21

Keywords: Tourism Services, Rural Tourism, Rural instability, Physical Impacts, Binalood City,

Abstract :

Nowadays, tourism development causes environmental and physical changes in rural areas. Accordingly, this study analyzes the impacts of tourism services on environmental-physical changes in the villages of Torghabeh County. Data collection was based on the documentary and survey methods. The information about the independent variable (the development of tourism services) and dependent variable (environmental-physical impacts) were collected by Vikor method and the questionnaires, respectively. Then, they were analyzed by linear regression test in SPSS software in order to determine the impact of tourism services development on environmental-physical instability in Torghabeh County. In addition, the Landsat satellite images were used for the assessment of land use changes. In the first hypothesis, the correlation coefficient (0.86) demonstrates that there is a strong, direct and positive correlation relationship between two variables of tourism development and environmental instability and there is a significant linear relationship between these variables (Significance level=0.002). Also, in the second hypothesis, the correlation coefficient (0.92) explains that there is a direct, strong and positive relationship between two variables of tourism development and physical instability, and the relationship between these variables is also significant (Significance level=0.04). Based on the results, the area of agricultural land and rangelands has been decreasing between 1987 and 2016.  In 1987, the square of agricultural land and rangelands were 3031.3 and 5765.52 hectares, respectively. However, in 2016, these areas had fallen to 2346.2 and 550.98 hectares, respectively. According to the adjusted coefficient of determination, 83% of the environmental instability and 89% of the physical instability in the sample villages are dependent on the development of tourism services.