An Analysis of the Role of Tourism and its Effects on the Development of Rural Settlements (Case Study: Marivan County)

Today, tourism is one of the major sources of income, employment, and creation of infrastructures to achieve sustainable development. The rural tourism is a new trend in tourism which raised from the 50s onwards. This study aimed to investigate the role of rural tourism in sustainable development of rural communities in the Marivan city located in Kurdistan province, and it is a descriptive-analytic study.
The population of the research consists of 453 persons by three groups of local people, government experts, and tourists. Face and content validity of research tools have been obtained by using expert's opinions and after carrying out the necessary revisions. To determine the reliability, a pilot test was conducted to determine the reliability through Cronbach's alpha.
The collected data were analyzed by using SPSS software. Results showed that the most important positive roles of strengthening regional economy through prosperity of Pilehvary market caused increasing the quality of life and solving the unemployment problem, but destruction of vegetation cover, the sharp rise in land and housing prices, losing the traditional culture, social conflict between host and guests communities are the most negative consequences of the expansion of rural tourism in the region.
The results of factor analysis indicate that prosperity of Pilehvary market prepares a suitable opportunity for tourists visiting in the surrounding villages of Marivan. The existence of logical planning that Comply with the natural and cultural conditions of the Environment, causes the tourism development to be doubled.