Evaluation of the impacts of culture-based tourism development in socio-cultural on rural destinations (case study: Kan district - Sulqan rural district

Rural tourism, has far-reaching cultural burden in all circumstances, despite having different nature. Cultural impact & cultural influence can be seen in both the hosts and guests communities, depending on the social circumstances, acceptance or rejection is different. The study of the impacts of tourism on host communities, is one of the main of interest areas to geographers and as well as other tourism researchers. The impacts of tourism are positive and negative, that both of them should be studied in the analyzing their effects on the host community. One of the most important dimensions of tourism is the cultural aspect. Indeed, the social and cultural impacts of tourism are the most important considerations for tourism development in any region, particularly in rural areas, so that the effectiveness and cultural influences between host and guest communities is so high and, that so far has been less studied or explored in scientific circles. As mentioned, This type of tourism is based on the existence of cultural attractions, is called culture-based tourism, Since there are so many religious shrines and cultural relics in the region of Sulaqan, hence, the aim of this research is the study of the impacts of rural tourism with emphasis on culture-based strategy in Sulqan rural district. This study was carried out using the descriptive-analytical method, and the data were collected through surveying through questionnaire designed by researcher. The sampling population of studied area includes 360 people in the two groups of tourists and the local community that is obtained by the Cochran formula. Nominal method was used to determine the validity of them. The validity of the questionnaires was confirmed by the panel of experts. Cronbakh alpha’s coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaires. Cronbakh alpha’s coefficients were obtained for the tourists questionnaire 0.81, for the local community questionnaire 0.84, and for village administrators and experts questionnaire 0.82, the obtained values are all satisfactory in humanities researches. Data have been analyzed and tested by correlation tests, one sample T-test, promote multivariate model. The results showed that, there is significant correlation between the impacts of tourism development and socio-cultural changes in the studied area, and the maximum impacts are seen in the field of changes in the costume & clothing of rural youth and the local residents customs. The results based on findings show that the greatest change in cultural dimensions calculated t 318/49. Based on the results obtained from the promote model, maximum impacts and socio- cultural changes occurred in Sulaqan and EmamzadeDavud and upper Sangan. Therefore, It can be noted that rural tourism development in the study area has a profound influence on socio-cultural changes.