Explaining a Perception Model for Rural Tourism from the Landscape Approach

The village is a synthetic product of natural and artificial elements founded on the economic necessities and adhering to a uniform culture. In every region of Iran, the organic process of building rural houses from locally-procured materials has led to the emergence of a wide variety of rural landscapes each with their own distinct characteristics. Culture, as a non-physical component with physical impacts, is one of the factors leading to variety among rural landscapes. Moreover, geographical variety in the case of components such as vegetation, wildlife, and climate, affects the lifestyle of the inhabitants of a village leading to unique forms of “rural landscape”. It seems that the novel concept of tourism economy has become one of the most important topics in rural sustainability and development. Rural tourism, through its scrutinising reading of the processes involved in shaping rural landscapes, attempts to transfer the subjective experience of the local inhabitants unto tourists. By examining the different aspects of the concept of “village”, this paper aims to explain the rural landscape, as a linking point between the natural world and social life, from a tourism point of view. It furthermore seeks to offer a perception model for the most important components of rural tourism.