Impact of Rural Tourism Development on Cultural Components of Rural Residents: A Case Study of Jiroft County of Iran

This study aimed at investigating the effects of rural tourism development on different cultural aspects in the host society. Data analysis was conducted through a TOPSIS Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model. The results indicated that in the scope under study, tourism was effective in appearance of cultural changes. In addition, there was a significant correlation between tourism development and cultural changes in the studied villages. Furthermore, most effects could be observed in fashion, food consumption, expansion of consumerism, family relations, native language and accent, participation and security feelings. Therefore, it might be claimed that tourism development not only had no contribution to the survival of local culture in these fields, but also jeopardized them with different threats in the studied villages.