A Qualitative Analysis of Rural Tourism Challenges of Kermanshah Province

Rural tourism is a new approach in development theories for building empowerment and capacity for rural areas. The present research was done in a spring and summer of 2017 to identify the challenges of rural tourism of Kermanshah province by applying qualitative paradigm and fundamental theory method (Grounded theory). Tourism experts and specialists of Kermanshah province make the study population in which 15 subjects were selected using purposeful combination sampling method. Data collection was carried out through an in-depth and semi-structured interview, which continued to reach theoretical saturation level. Data analysis was performed through three open, axial and selective coding steps. The phenomenon of the environment in rural tourism of Kermanshah province remaining unknown was the main issue that the researchers repeatedly encountered in reviewing and revising their field notes. Moreover, the underlying conditions; causal conditions (the inefficiency of the process of guiding investors and entrepreneurs in rural tourism and the lack of infrastructure facilities in rural areas); interventional conditions (aging and rural population decline, land ownership and security problems); strategies and outcomes related to this phenomenon, such as an increase in urban migration, demands for unprofitable or false jobs, rural depopulation, dissatisfaction with living conditions and economic inhabitancy, and unidentified natural, cultural and tourism potentialities of the villages were explored by the use of the paradigmatic model in this study.