Ecotourism Strategic Planning in Villages Located in Desert Areas (Case Study: Village Kharanaq, Yazd Province)

IntroductionThis research was conducted in village Kharanq. The village has located in arid areas of Iran. Iran itself is among arid the countries and semi arid more than 68 percent of the areas in this country have arid and semi-arid climate, and more than7/43 million hectares of its ecosystems are desert areas. About 32 percent of thepopulation live in the rural areas, on more than 90 percent of natural resources andcultivated lands. So their activities have more effect on natural resources, includingarid areas. The major problems that facing the villagers are economic ones, such asshortage of available jobs, limit access to new resources of income and low incomesamong farmers and other occupation of rural population. Also, these villagesencountered with shortage in water resources and arable lands to develop agricultureand animal husbandry activities. Therefore, in order to eliminate these problems, thediversification and more access to new jobs and income generation through neweconomic activities in these villages are necessary. These new economic activitiesshould also create new budget and income for protection and reclamation of naturalresources for achieving to rural sustainable development in the arid regions. Theecotourism is an appropriate option that can create new economic resources toachieve the above mentioned goals.MethodologyBecause rural planning and development is more sensitive in desert areas, it requires to establish appropriate and specific strategies. This research has established to evaluate strategies for planning in the field of ecotourism in arid rural areas. The method of research that has conducted is descriptive and it was a survey in one ofthe villages in arid area. Participants in the research have been divided to threegroups including rural residents, tourists and rural managers. The attitudes ofresearch participants in these three groups have been investigated through threemain factors. These factors include environmental, economic and socio-culturalones. In these study 75 indicators has been studied. These indicators were identifiedthrough interview with villagers, local officials and the experts as well. In this studythe Statistical Society - with 435 persons - was studied. On the base of Cochraneformula, the authors we chose the random sample of 120 persons. Due to lack ofaccurate statistics for the number of tourists, 100 participants have been selectedthrough accessibility method. The other required data in this research, are gatheredthrough interviews with 15 people that targeted because of their authority anddecision making power, such as rural mayor (Dehyar), Village Islamic Council,manager of county and cultural heritage, and the members of Handicrafts andTourism Organization of Yazd province. Knowing that a diversity of standpointsoften exist in cases of tourism effect, an effort was made to capture input aboutstrengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of ecotourism by applying SWOTanalysis method and investigate its potentials, to find appropriate strategies forimproving ecotourism activities in arid rural areas.ResultsThe results indicate that despite the natural attractions of these areas, tourism development has been related on historical and cultural attractions. It seems thatnatural attractions of village were ignored in tourism planning. The research findingshow that on the basis of strategic analysis, there are 41 items that indicates onstrengths points and opportunities. In contrast, 35 items have identified asweaknesses and threat points. So the authors recognized that the understudiedvillages have proper potential for ecotourism development. Further analyses indicatethat there are a kind of convergence between the strengths and opportunities andalso divergence in the weaknesses and threats in three research participant groups.FindingsFinally, the applied Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) to find the final score or grade of the each strategy. Eventually, the "combination of historicaltourism programs, by accompany with ecotourism programs in villages" have beenknown as a proper strategy to develop tourism in the area. Finally research hasproposed many solutions to develop the rural tourism:- Diversification in the case of economic activities on the village andextension of handicraft production depending on tourist's demands andtheir interests.- Considering the appropriate rule for protecting the cultural heritage andnatural resources by rural residents.- The study of environmental Feasibility in order to create and extendecotourism in arid rural areas.