Regional planning of peripheral villages with emphasis on the development of tourism industry (Case: villages around Nikshahr)

In the postmodern era and today, development indicators have moved towards multidimensionality and have moved away from being merely sectoral. Tourism industry is one of the most important dimensions of development. Tourism is a major force in rural location and is widely used to preserve and revitalize rural areas in times of economic uncertainty, which can be achieved through principled and appropriate planning and the identification of tourism opportunities and constraints. This industry has high capacity to be used in the fields of environment, culture and history, which need to be planned in order to be sustainable. In the age of globalization, tourism development has been introduced as one of the main drivers of spatial development and regional competitiveness. An issue that has been neglected in Iran or has been less addressed. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to plan the peripheral villages around Nikshahr City with emphasis on the development of tourism industry.

The present research is an applied research in terms of purpose, a descriptive and non-experimental research in terms of data collection, and in terms of implementation, it is a survey. The statistical population of the present study includes members of the village council, rural mayors and district administrators of the peripheral villages of Nakshahr (Tehrak, Khairabad, Zahak, Nokabad and Hitan). The sample size was determined based on purposive sampling of 50 people. SPSS software and FARAS, FBMW and WASTPAS models were used to analyze the data.  

The results of the correlation test show that there is no relationship between the development of the tourism industry and the regional planning of peripheral villages. Also, the results of the FARAS model showed that among the elements of tourism, services with a weight of 0.434, have the highest level of importance in the peripheral villages of Nikshahr. The results of FBMW model showed that in the spatial performance of information and service elements, Khairabad, Nokabad, Hitan, Tehrak and Zahak villages, respectively, and in the spatial performance of transportation and advertising elements, Khairabad, Hitan, Nokabad, Tehrak and Tehrak villages, respectively ranked from high to low. Finally, the results of the WASTPAS model in order to rank the peripheral villages with emphasis on historical and natural attractions showed that Khairabad village has the highest rank in both historical-cultural and natural attractions. 

In general, results showed that the spatial performance of Nikshahr peripheral villages is different in the element of historical-religious and natural attractions, and these villages in the field of tourism should have a special emphasis on regional planning. Despite the high potential of natural and historical-religious attractions, the lack of tourism infrastructure will lead to irreparable social and cultural damage.