Evaluation and Prioritize of Marketing Mix Components Influence the Development of Rural Tourism (Case Study: Villages of Foman County)

Today, tourism is an important source of income particularly for rural areas and local communities. Because of the immense benefits of tourism for rural development, special measures must be taken to attract tourists. In this regard, the marketing mix including 7 factors of planning and management, evidence and physical facilities, advertising, public and staff, price and the product were evaluated in the villages of Foman County. With regard to the tourism capacities of villages in the area such as its several tourism attractions and proximity to densely populated urban centers, there is a great opportunity for tourism development. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study with survey research methods. To collect data, we used a 46-item self-designed questionnaire based on the comments of 40 experts of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization of Guilan Province. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS through performing binomial, correlation, and Friedman tests. The results indicate that the most unfavorable situation indicators are advertising and then public and staff while their high concern in the study area is rural tourism marketing.