Analysis of Eco-Tourists' Lived Experiences of Rural Environments and their Positive Effects

The main purpose of this study was to bring tourists' experiences of nature and rural semi-natural spaces and their positive effects to the formal knowledge and discover important data and new categories of tourist’s experiences. This research seeks to complete a puzzle of categories that ultimately helps to understand and explain the quality of "nature experience in rural areas" and its positive effects in various dimensions. We used the contextual theory method in this qualitative research. The study population was tourists from Mashhad who had at least five rural trips in the years 2019 & 2020. To sample by the snowball method, semi-structured interviews were conducted involving 41 individuals using the two criteria of "diversity" and "reaching the theoretical saturation point". Findings showed that tourists have experienced a variety of direct nature experiences in rural environments with their senses, which have been associated with many positive effects such as improved physical and mental health, feeling of pleasure and self-esteem, creativity and finally a kind of satisfaction. Toward the end, suggestions were made to the relevant officials for development of the nature experience platforms and enrichment of the rural tourism trips. As the current research is an effort in line with academic discourse on the importance and dimensions of experiencing nature, its role and effects, the most important suggestion of this study to future researchers is to conduct more quantitative, qualitative and mixed metod research in this new and multidisciplinary field of study.