Sustainable Ecotourism Development Strategies Based on the Potentials of Local Communities in Kahman Tourist Area in Selseleh County

The purpose of this study is Sustainable ecotourism development strategies "based on the potentials of local communities in Kahman tourist area in Selseleh County" This research was conducted in 2020. This is exploratory research and is applied in terms of purpose. This research has been done in three steps. In the first step and quantitative part of the research, 241 people from Kahman tourism area were selected through random sampling and the benefits of ecotourism industry in local communities were evaluated. In the second step, by examining the documents and interviewing some key people, the actual and potential potentials in the Kahman tourist area were identified. In the last step, the strategies for the development of sustainable ecotourism based on the potential of the region were identified and analyzed, in which the fuzzy Delphi method has been used. In this step, the sample size was 21 related experts who were purposefully selected by snowballs. The results of this study show that most rural residents (89.4%) have gained economic benefits. Suggested solutions are: Infrastructure-cultural solutions with five sub-solutions, Educational-environmental with six sub-strategies and economic solutions with nine sub-solutions. According to experts, infrastructure solutions are a higher priority than other solutions (Establish security, Advertising to get to know the area, Development of health facilities and pass industry protection laws).