The Analysis of the Factors Affecting the Development of Cultural Tourism and its Effects on Economic Sustainability: A Case study on the Rural Areas of Zanjan Province

Author

• M Ahmadi

Abstract

  The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyz the factors which affected the development of cultural tourism and their effects on rural economic sustainability in rural areas of the province of Zanjan.This is an applied research with a descriptive-analytic design. The data were gathered through library and field research. The geographical scope of this research was touristic villages of the province of Zanjan. The population included 220 officials and experts from the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of the province of Zanjan, students and local experts and trustees in the villages with tourism potential. Utilizing Cochran formula, a sample of 131 participants were selected. The Questionnaire’s reliability was tested using Cronbach alpha which turned out to be .73. To analyze the gathered data and information, descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and variance) and inferential statistics (factor analysis, correlation and path analysis) were performed. The findings showed that the greatest overall effect of cultural tourism on the sustainability of the rural economy was associated with the employment index (0/776) and the lowest overall effect belonged to capital indicator with the index of 0/089. The observed overall effect suggests that the increase in rural and cultural tourism results in the increase in the rural employment which, in turn, leads to the increase of employment, income and productivity, and hence investment. It is also suggested that taking such actions as training tourists and rural habitants to realize the importance of such historical and cultural heritage, developing professional groups including local experts in order to develop and design strategic plans for improving tourism in the region, training local specialist for cultural tourism, and providing a suiable condition to increase research on cultural tourism can be effective.
  

Keywords

• culture
• cultural tourism
• Economic Sustainability
• the province of Zanjan

20.1001.1.22516735.1397.8.29.7.5

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