The Process, Ground Work and Expected Investment on the Necessary Infrastructures and Places for Rural Tourism Development by Involved Groups in Tehran Province

Rural development programs are considered as parts of national development and economical programs in different countries to achieve a sustainable and all-embracing development. The collaboration of private sector and local communities with government for implementing the projects, especially when they, themselves, are investing, increase the success rate of the implementation of the project. According to the main aim of the research which is to find the groundwork and predicting the amount of investment required in the infrastructures and the development of rural tourism sites in Tehran province by government, rural and private sector, we have tried to check the status of infrastructure development of rural tourism in Tehran province and to gather the opinion of the three groups involved in rural development in conjunction with the needed infrastructure investment in rural tourism and also we determined the share of each group’s investment.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: Many tourism experts believe that rural tourism is a complex multi-faceted activity that is not just farm-based tourism. Rural tourism is a mild form of sustainable tourism development and multi-activity in rural region. The role of tourism in developing rural regions has a magnificent importance and can be summarized as follows: Reviving and reorganizing local economic activities and improving life quality, providing extra income along with agricultural, industrial, and service sectors, creating a possibility of making new social interactions, opportunities for re-evaluation of the heritage and its symbols, natural resources, and rural place’s identity, social, environmental and economical supports, raising the economic value of nutritional quality. In tourism development, many experts believe in the community participation as a method to evenhandedly distribute the benefits of tourism development among all members of local communities.
Community participation can be an important factor for building the community capacity in tourism development. Without community participation, there is neither development nor program. Hence, lack of community participation in decision for development can lead to a failure in the community development.
METHYODOLOGY: This research was conducted based on documentary research method and field research based on questionnaire as well as face to face interview. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for analyzing the data.
Frequency, mean, and standard deviation are the measures used in descriptive statistics however mean comparison tests are used in inferential statistics.
The population of the survey consists of three groups as follow: 1) Authorities including 119 government officials, provincial and local authorities related to rural development. 2) Locals or rural residents including 122 rural residents of Tehran who have permanent or temporary residence in the villages and the third group is 183 private business owners and a number of non-governmental organization's members.
Surveys conducted during this study suggest that in recent years, in Tehran province, substantial investments in infrastructure of rural areas have been made, such as roads, electricity, plumbing, gas, health centers, phone and TV networks that are in good condition. However, essential sites for rural tourism such as hotels, guesthouses, rural camps, rural markets, the Internet and public health services are not pleasing.
It seems that most of the investments in rural areas of Tehran province have been done for the welfare of rural residents and mainly led to the rural construction, and not rural development. In this case, the difference between rural construction and rural development should be noted. If some aspects of development such as economy, employment, rural welfare and empowerment, and etc. improve, then we can say that we have taken steps in the field of rural development.
Without a doubt, the participation of public and private sector not only in the field of rural tourism program is needed, but at different stages of the program, including planning, implementation, evaluation and monitoring will be required. Since the local people and the private sector will play an important role in the implementation of rural programs, their assistance is very valuable for government. If government uses their assistance in a good way, the programs will be of a high success rate.
CONCLUTION: Based on the findings, the locals and private sector, both, have shown their interest to invest in rural tourism and also have identified fields of their investment. Government support can be a catalyst for community and private sector participation. In order to achieve a hundred percent rural tourism development, a twenty-year outlook which introduces five percent growth per year, is considered. Although with the proper function of the government and good participation of people and private sectors involved, this growth can get faster which can hit the target much earlier than expected.
If the hypothesis about investment in rural tourism in the province of Tehran to be done by groups is true, possibility of creating 11213 jobs annually will be mentioned. This number of annual increase in employment would be significant for rural areas in Tehran province. Certainly, the rise in employment will cause the improvement of economic situation of the region, improving the livelihoods of rural households, and rural to urban migration will be reduced.