The Role of Religious Tourism in Economic Development of Rural Settlements Case Study of Villages in Central District of Ardebil

The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of religious tourism in the economic development of rural settlements in the villages of central part of Ardebil. This research is a descriptive - analytic study using a survey method and a library. The statistical population of the study was 16 villages in the central part of Ardabil which were referred to as the potential tourism center and the statistical community of the study. The statistical population of this study was selected villagers living in rural areas of central Ardabil, which according to the census of 1395, is equal to 16474 N = 4835 families and according to the specificity of the studied population, the Cochran formula is used and The sample size was 375n = For a more accurate sample size of 380 was selected. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to measure the validity of the questionnaire. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to determine the reliability of the questionnaire, and the alpha value for the various parts of the questionnaire was 0.76-0.85 Calculated. In order to obtain residents' perceptions about the components, statistical tests of mean of responses and variance and T-test of single sample and Pearson correlation test were used. The results of this study showed that there was a positive and significant relationship between religious tourism and economic components of research. Thus, the most important role of religious tourism in rural economic development is that income (2.92), employment (89.2), rising land and property prices (29.3), investment (2.91), suggesting that religious tourism had the greatest impact on rising land prices and real estate and had the least effect on the formation of society Has been local.