Investigation of the Factors Hindering and Promoting Tourism Evidences from Villages of Abyaneh Village

Subject Areas : Environmental policy and management

Hoda Manafian ¹ , Zhila Daneshvar Ameri ² , Saba Salehi Esfahani ³

1 - M.Sc Department of Rural Development and Management, Faculty of Agricultural Economic and Development, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran
2 - Assistant Professor of Rural Development, Department of Agricultural Economic and Development, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Iran
3 - Department of Recreation, Parks & Tourism Management, Kent State University, United States of America (USA)

Received: 2013-11-15 Accepted : 2014-02-18 Published : 2014-06-01

Keywords: tourism development, Local society, Rural tourism, Abyaneh village,

Abstract :

Rural tourism, a dynamic industry with a promising future, can play a key role in economic improvement of talented countries such as Iran. Abyaneh village is one of the best-known villages in both Iran and the world. The number of annual visitors of this ancient village is approximately 550,000 that is a considerable number. Within a short radius of Abyaneh there are five villages (Barz, Tare, Komjan, Yarand, Hanjan) with a lot of potentials to develop rural tourism. But only 20% of tourists of Abyaneh population consider the surrounding villages as a separate destination. The large number of tourists visiting Abyaneh village provides opportunity for managing rural tourism in this area is to attract tourists to the surrounding villages around Abyaneh. In the present study, the hindering and promoting factors of fostering tourism in these villages have been compared by both the surrounded villagers' and locals' of Abyaneh village. To this end, 222 questionnaires were distributed among the individuals and the means were compared using Mann-Whitney test. The most important unfavorable factor, from the surrounded villagers' point of view, is lack of enough advertising and marketing and from the locals of Abyaneh village points of view, is the shortage of attractions, compared with attractions of Abyaneh.

References:

1- Aref, F. (2010). Community capacity as an approachfor sustainable tourism. E-Review ofTourism Research (eRTR), 8(2).

2- Armestrong, R.W., Mock, C., Go, F., & Chan, G.(1997). The important of Cross-Cultural expectationsin the measurement of service quality perceptionsin the hotel industry. International Journal ofHospitality Management, 16 (2), 181-190. [DOI via Crossref]

3- Belsky, J. M. (1999). Misrepresenting communites:The politics of community based rural ecotourismin Gales Point Manatee, Belize. RuralSociology, 64(4), 641-666.

4- Bergmanna, R., Ludbrookb, J., & Will P.J.M.Spoorena (2000). different Outcomes of the WilcoxonMann WhitneyTest from Different Statistics Packages.The American Statistician, 54(1), 72-77.

5- Birdir, S., Unal, O., Birdir, K., & Williams, A.T.(2013). Willingness to pay as an economic instrumentfor coastal tourism management: Cases fromMersin, Turkey. Tourism Management, 36: 279–283.

6- Campbell, M. (1999). Ecotourism in rural developingcommunities. Annals of Tourism Research,26(3), 534-553. [DOI via Crossref]

7- Danaher, P. J., & Arweiler, N. (1996). CustomerSatisfaction in the Tourist Industry A Case Study ofVisitors to New Zealand. Journal of Travel Research,35(1), 89-93. [DOI via Crossref]

8- Forrest, M., & Andersen, B. (1986). Ordinal scaleand statistics in medical research. British MedicalJournal, Statistics in Medicine, 292: 537-538.

9- Ghaderi, Z., & Henderson, J.C. (2012). Casestudy sustainable rural tourism in Iran: A perspectivefrom Hawraman Village. Tourism Management Perspectives,2(3), 47–54. [DOI via Crossref]

10- ICHTO (2010). Booklet of Abyaneh pilot area.Tehran: Deputy of Investment and Projects, IranCultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism OrganizationPublished in Persian.

11- ICHTO (2012). About Iran. Destinations. Isfahan.Retrieved from. http://www.ichto.ir/ Default.aspx?tabid=1153.

12- Ince, T., & Bowen, D. (2011). Consumer satisfactionand services: insights from dive tourism.Service Industries Journal, 31(11), 1769-1792. [DOI via Crossref]

13- Jeffrey, D., & Xie, Y. (1995). The UK market fortourism in China. Annals for Tourism Research,22(4), 857-876. [DOI via Crossref]

14- Kazemi, M. (2009). The analysis of citizens, perceptionrole in tourism development in chabahar(case study: zahedan citizens).Geography and Development,6(12), 81-100.

15- Kozak, M. (2002). Comparative analysis oftourist motivations by nationality and destinations.Tourism Management, 23(3), 221-232. [DOI via Crossref]

16- Látková, P., & Vogt, C. A. (2012). Residents’ attitudestoward existing and future tourism developmentin rural communities. Journal of TravelResearch, 51(1), 50-67.

17- Lind, D., Marchal, W., & Wathen, S. (2004). StatisticalTechniques in Business and Economics, 12e.Retrieved on March 2, 2008, from University ofPhoenix, eResource.

18- Long, V., & Wall, G. (1996). Successful tourismin Nusa, Lembongan, Indonesia. Tourism Management17(1), 43-50. [DOI via Crossref]

19- McCrum-Gardner, E. (2008).Which is the correctstatistical test to use? British Journal of Oral andMaxillofacial Surgery, 46: 38- 41.

20- Monteiro, Jeronimo g.r. (2011) Dancing to thetune of waves: impact of Maritime history ontourism in Goa. The International Conference onTourism (ICOT): Tourism in an Era of Uncertainty.27–30 April. Cyprus University of Technology,Crete, Greece, 525- 538.

21- Mulligan, P. (1999). The marginalization of indigenouspeoples from tribal lands in South EastMadagascar. Journal of International Development11(4), 644-659.

22- Richardson, S.L., & Crompton, J. (1988). Vacationpatterns of French and English Canadians. Annalsof Tourism Research, 15(4). [DOI via Crossref]

23- Roknoddin Eftekhari, A., & Mahdavi, D. (2006).Strategies for developing rural tourism using theSWOT Model, Case Study: Lavasan-E Kuchak Rural.Modarres Humanities Journal, 10 (45).

24- Saul, R. (1999). No time to worship the serpentdeities: Women, economic change, and religion innorht-western Nepal. Gender and Development,7(1), 31-39. [DOI via Crossref]    [Pubmed]

25- Shackley, M. (1994). The land of Lo, Nepal /Tibet. Tourism Management, 15(1), 17-26. [DOI via Crossref]

26- Stevens, S. F. (1993). Tourism, change, and continuityin the Mount Everest region, Nepal. GeographicalReview, 83(4), 410-428.

27- UNESCO. (2012). The historical village ofAbyaneh. Retrieve from http:// whc. unesco. org/ en/tentativelists/5197.

28- Yong, Li. (2012). Tourists’ perceptions of ethnictourism in Lugu Lake, Yunnan, China. Journal ofHeritage Tourism, 7(1), 59–81.