A Survey of the Attitude of the Rural People on Socio-Economics Impact of Lake Tourism (Case study: Lakes of Fars Province)

Extended Abstract :The fact is that wetlands are among the most unique, beautiful, and wonderful natural phenomenona that possess very exquisite, attractive and mysterious features that can attract lots of tourists. Lakes because of their natural and live landscapes, high-quality environment, and their specific properties are one of the most valuable attractions of tourism; they can indeed bring in socio-economic development to the rural regions. The development of the natural tourism in the rural regions is an essential element that could be raised as one the ways to rescue the villages from poverty, immigration, and socio- economic problems. Therefore the goal of the current article is to assess the socio- economic effects of lake tourism on the surrounding rural settlements in the Fars province- Iran. Based on the descriptive- analytic method of research the statistic population of the research selected as the all villages surrounding the lakes of Fars province to the radius of 2 kilometers. Based on this point of view in this study the number of 46 villages and their 9492 families living in were under study and to gain the mentioned goal the Cochran formula(with 95% level of confidence) and the number of 368 families were used as the sample families. On the next step beside the document studies, a vast range of indices with economic and social dimensions were determined and in the frame of field studies (questionnaire, and forms of field observations) were investigated. Also to data analysis the Kendall's statistic method in the SPSS software were used. The results of the research showed that between the socio- economic dimensions and the level of the distance of the villages from the under study lakes with the regard to the Kendall's correlation coefficient (-0.410) and the level of errors (Introduction The development of the natural tourism in the rural regions is an essential element and a new way to rescue the villages from the poverty, immigration, and socio- economic problems. In the most rural regions, because of the dominant agricultural economics and its damageable nature, the attention to the other developmental activities like tourism as the complementary of this section can have a useful role in the empowering the local people and human resources development, diversification of the economic section and its growths, job creation, solving the problem of unemployment, the improvement of the life standards by social services and bridging the gap between urban and rural areas in different fields, and the decreasing the immigration from rural regions to the metropolises. The introduction of the studied area The Fars province by the Sheeraz city as the capital with the area of 124280 has covered 8.1 percent or total area of Iran. This province is located between and degrees of east longitude and between degrees of northern latitude. Research The current investigation as an applied one and used the cross- sectional methods to study the raised parameters. Respecting to the goals of the research that has been the socio- economic effects of the lake tourism on the rural settlements surrounding the Fars province's lakes parallel to the document studies a vast range of the economic and social indices were determined and then were studied in the frame of some field studies(questionnaire and field observation). Also, analyzing the date was done by use of the Kendall's statistical test in the SPSS software. The statistical population was consisting of the all surrounding villages of the lakes of the Fars province in the radius of 2 kilometers. Based on this article 46 villages with 9492 families were investigated. Finally 368 families were determined by use of the Cochran formula (with 95% confidence) as the sample families. The results showed that among the studied components, the indexes of the increasing devotion to the living location(4.40), interaction between villagers and tourists(4.12), village safety(4.11), new job creation(4.04), income increasing(4) were ranked as the highest records. The indices of the conflicts between the villagers and tourists(1.32) disputes(1.40) and disorders like addiction among the youths(1.41) disruptions in the traditional pattern(1.51) changing in patterns and customs(1.67) the level of the confidence to the promises of the authorities(2.7) and the governmental investments(2.77) and the private investment in the villages(2.76) were recorded as the lowest levels. The study of the socio- economic effects of the lake tourism in the 46 under study villages showed that the villages of the Shahrinjan, Pareeshan, Ayaz Abad surrounding the Pareeshan lake, Hayram, Hirmm, Laqaran, Koorih, Karyan, surrounding the lakes of the Hirmm- Karyan and Hayram, Kinarah, Sharq Abad, Chahar Qalat, surrounding the lake of Tashk, Ameer Abad-e Kaftar surrounding the lake of Kaftar, Dasht-e Arjan surrounding the lake of Arjan, and Maharloo- Kohnih, sourrounding the Maharloo lake were under highest levels of socio- economic affects. Also the final results of the Kendall's correlation test studying the socio- economic effects of lake tourism showed that between the socio- economic dimension and the levels of the distance of the villages from the under study lakes and respecting to the Kendall's correlation coefficient(-0.410) the level of the error(< 0.01) there is a significant negative correlation.