The Analysis of the Impacts of Tourism on the Quality of Rural Life (Case Study: Uraman District of Sarvabad County

In Iran, the quality of rural life by tourists has changed a lot. These changes have had both positive effects and negative and undesirable changes. One of the important places of rural tourism in Iran is the Uraman District in Sarvabad County in the west of Kurdistan. This district has various potential capacities in the field of tourism and as one of the tourism hubs in province and the country which receives a large number of domestic and foreign tourists every year. Now the issue studied in this investigation is the fact that how development of tourism has affected the quality of rural life in this district. Since, according to the level of tourism development, several changes occur in the quality of rural life which due to the role of local communities in sustainable tourism; identification and assessment of the current situation, changes in the quality of life, is necessary for the persistence and rural tourism boom. The purpose of this study is examining the impact of tourism on the quality of rural life in this area. So the main research question arising is: what effects the tourism has had on the quality of rural life in the "Uraman" district.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: The issue of quality of life from the early 1990s onwards, in the theoretical literature and development, has acquired great importance and has been the basis of differentiation and classification of the countries in the recent years. If the tourism improves the quality of life of residents, it will faced the support and acceptance. But if the quality of life of residents through tourism development over the environment tolerance reduced, residents don’t support this industry. In relation to this, various models have been proposed by researchers in the field of tourism. One of these models is Butler's life cycle. In this model, it is believed that in the beginning, desired changes in the quality of life of residents through tourism development occur in destination. But then, when the bearing capacity of the environment or the acceptable level of society changes reach its threshold, negative changes due to tourism development is emerged and the quality of life of destination residents will degrade.
This study in terms of purpose is applied and in terms of methodology is descriptive - analytical. The data collection of the theoretical part is that of documentary and in the field-based part interviews and distributed questionnaires have been used. Statistical populations of this study are the households’ heads of villages of “Uraman” District in Sarvabad County. Firstly, Cochran formula has been used to determine the sample size. Among households’ heads of selected villages, then by using correction method360households were selected randomly. Due to the extension of the area and difficulty of access, 20%, namely 3 villages of 14 villages of this district which has the highest volume of tourism and are among the tourism target villages of this area were selected. By specifying the number of distributed questionnaires in each village by category, questionnaires were distributed randomly among the heads of households in these villages.
From the perspective of residents, tourism has developed the economic and social aspects in the average level and the physical aspect at a desirable level and has improved their quality of life. Only in the environmental dimension, rural residents, evaluated negative and less of numerical utility tested the impact of the tourism development. In total, the calculated average has shown 3.14 which means that the tourism development results in significance level of 0.05 namely with 95% confidence leads to improve the quality of life of residents. Meanwhile, smaller calculated significance from alpha 0.05 in the two-sample t-test, shows a significant difference in quality of life among people whose jobs depend on tourism with those people that their jobs are not related to tourism. Also smaller calculated significantly from the alpha level of 0.05in the one-way analysis of variance, shows the difference in the quality of life of rural residents in the three villages being studied. Finally, by analyzing and summarizing the findings and statements of local people, it can be stated that the situation of study area in combination model of Butler and Doxy within the development range face of indifferently stage.
To improve the environmental aspect of quality of villager’s life, full implementation of the guide plans along with the strengthening of environmental non-governmental association established in rural areas can be useful. Improvement of cultural backgrounds among the local people and even among tourists along with the distribution of brochures or writings some sentences in the importance of nature at the sites of the resort is another strategy for improving the environmental quality of the region's tourism villages. Path analysis model showed that in addition to the economic dimension of the quality of life of the villagers, had a direct impact with indirect impact on other dimensions, has changed and improved them and generally, has improved the overall quality of rural resident’s life. Considering this, it should be tried that the benefits of tourism among rural residents distributed. Also, to solve the problem of the movement condition of tourist area toward the in difference, preparing short-term programs are essential.