Tourism's Role in the Physical and Functional Revolutionize of Rural Settlements (Case Study: Villages in the Central Subarea County of Lahijan)

Today, tourism is considered as a tool for the development of rural areas in many countries of the world. Although most of the villages have changed over time, but villages, in which tourist attraction is significant, the speed and rate of change is more. The purpose of this study was to consider the role of tourism in the physical and functional changes of villages. This descriptive-analytic study collected its data via both documentary and field study. To rank the villages in terms of tourism arising fromchanges, the AHP model is used. In this study, based on preliminary studies, the 8 villages of the centeral Lahijan city, in which tourist attractions spread, was studied. Statistical population is 98 experts of local and provincial managers that relevant to the topic that based on the standard table of Morgan 80 persons were randomly selected as the sample. To investigate the matter, the eight criteria related to tourism and the physical and functional changes (changes in land use, public services, accommodation services, catering services, businesses, second homes, quality of buildings and land prices) were emphasized. The results show that the most important impact of tourism in these villages are such as: Open second homes (491 units), land use change from agricultural to residential and commercial about 622 hectares, reducingfarming, boom tourism activity and create new economic activity in the service sector, flourishing in tourism activity and creating new economic activity in the service sector. AHP model based on the output of the eight surveyed villages, Sheykhanbar village has a 0.26 weight that show the highest rate changes and sarcheme village has a 0.04 weight that show the least amount of physical and functional changes.