Prioritization and Ranking of Target Tourism Villages (A Case of Meshkinshahr)

One of the most important issues in sustainable rural development is the development of rural tourism activities. Determining the value of tourism and their natural potentials with proper planning can lead the development of economic activities, income increase and employment in rural areas in one hand and to achieve sustainable development in these regions on the other hand. To achieve these objectives, recognizing the villages which have the potentials as well as ranking them is an essential step. The villages of Meshkinshahr due to the vast rural tourism and historical attractions have a high potential for attracting tourists, and offer the visitors a different choice of tourism opportunity. In this study, the prioritization and ranking of villages in Meshkinshahr have been analyzed using AHP recreational factors. The population of the study included tourist villages, experts and university professors who had enough knowledge and experience in the field of rural tourism. Thus, the most important measures affecting tourism were selected from tourists’ viewpoints in the form of a questionnaire. Then, four places in the villages were selected. The results of the study indicated that the infrastructure and service standards with a final score of 0.415 had the greatest effect on tourism development or lack of development in the target areas. Also, the most important factor was the level of rural area. Based on the results of the model, the Moiel village with 0.501, Onar village with the final score of 0.318, and Qasbeh village with the final score of 0.181 were placed in the first, second, and third ranks respectively