Assessing the Impacts of Tourism Development on Lifestyle Change in Tourism Destination Villages (Case Study: East Alamut District of Qazvin County)

Tourism has been renowned for its diverse functions, high ability to connect with other sectors of the economy, socio-economic development and changing lifestyle of rural areas. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the effects of tourism development on changing the lifestyle of tourism target villages in eastern Alamut district of Qazvin county. According to the Census of Population and Housing in 2016, the total number of households in these villages is 879. Using Cochran formula, the number of samples needed to complete the questionnaire was 268. The validity of the questionnaire was evaluated by experts. The reliability of the variables was calculated as 0.86% by Cronbach's alpha. Statistical tests such as one-sample t-test, regression, and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze the data. The results show that tourism development has a positive impact on lifestyle change. According to the regression fitting model, the coefficient of determination was 0.739 indicating a positive relationship between tourism and lifestyle change. The results of one-way analysis of variance showed that two villages namely: Masudabad (with a mean of 3.5599) and Zarabad (with a mean of 3.4778) had received the most impact and Andaj (with a mean of 2.6314) had received the least impact of tourism development.