Agritourism as a multiplier factor for the development of Iran's rural communities: a mixed-method model to present consistent scenarios

ABSTRACT

This study used a three-phase mixed-method approach to determine geographical capacity requirements and influential factors to develop consistent agritourism development scenarios in Iran's rural communities. The Kandovan district was chosen as a case study to highlight rural communities’ agricultural potential. To identify agricultural potential zones in the first phase, GIS analysis has been used to determine that the area under study possesses favorable conditions for agricultural activities in terms of data layers such as roads, soil, freshwater source, average annual temperature, altitude, and land slope. The second phase's findings, based on a quantitative explanatory factor analysis, indicated that eight factors contribute to the development of agritourism, including capacity assessment, monitoring, land-use analysis, organizational learning, infrastructure, resident awareness, policymaking and integrated policy and vision recognition. In the final phase, the study developed three consistent scenarios for agritourism development in Kandovan by analyzing 32 possible states of key factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Agritourism development
• rural economies
• mixed-method approach
• strategic planning
• scenario building

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohammad Nematpour

Mohammad Nematpour is at Business Management Department, Faculty of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Iran. His research focuses on tourism–related studies of marketing, planning, agritourism, foresight and future–based subjects.

Sarasadat Makian

Sarasadat Makian is at Urban Planning and Alpine Geography Institute, Grenoble, France. Her research interests include ecotourism, climate change and future studies.

Afsaneh Rostami

Afsaneh Rostami is at Business Management Department, Faculty of Management and Accounting, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Iran. Her research interests include agritourism and tourism sustainable development.

Amin Faraji

Amin Faraji is Assistant Professor at University of Tehran and President of Smart City Research Centre, Iran. He has been working on smart tourism for 10 years. He has also worked on several research projects focusing on tourism planning, urban geography and urban planning.