Developing Tourism in Garmeh Village of Esfahan Province: An Analysis of Facilitation and Sustainability

A network of private-sector facilitators of rural tourism (called khushesar-e bumgardi or ecotourism clustering) has taken shape in Iran in recent years. Each of its members runs a rural lodge، hosts tourists according to local customs، and promotes local handicrafts and other local products with the participation of village residents. This article analyzes tourism development activities in the village of Garmeh (a highly successful example in the network) focusing on the facilitator’s role، impacts of the activities، and social، economic، and environmental sustainability. Fieldwork for this article was carried out through observation، 41 semi-structured interviews with village residents/stakeholders، and participatory rural appraisal (for 12 groups) targeting a set of socio-cultural، economic، and environmental sustainability indicators. Based on its results، the development of tourism in Garmeh is found to have both sustainable and unsustainable characteristics in social، economic، and environmental terms. As a result of private-sector facilitation، the village has gained access to a relatively large tourism market. At the same time، local participation has a top-down nature and tourism development activities have certain monopoly aspects. There is overall local satisfaction with tourism development in Garmeh، although cultural differences as well as conflicts between tourism and local development priorities and among different village clans have also resulted in some level of dissatisfaction with the presence of tourists and activities of the facilitator.