Strengthening Transport Infrastructure and Modeling its Impacts on Rural Tourism Development, Case study: Shit-Walidar and Shirinso Tourist Areas, Tarom Township

The existence of appropriate tourism facilities and services and the high quality of tourism infrastructure and services certainly affect the demand for tourist attractions. Therefore, Tarom township is located in the north of Zanjan province; In the land management plan of Zanjan province, it has been proposed as a "privileged regional tourism axis." However, with the construction and operation of a new road along the route of this tourism axis, Great changes have taken place in the establishment of transportation connections and the entry of tourists to this area. Therefore; this study aimed to investigate the role of strengthening transportation infrastructure(road construction) and its impact on the development of tourism activities in the study area. Also, Seek answers the following questions: - Is there a significant relationship between the construction of Zanjan-Tahm-Chavarzeq road and the sustainable development of tourism in the study area?- Which dimension and Component of tourism development have received the most impact from the construction of Zanjan-Taham-Chavarzeq road?

The present research is of an applied type. The statistical population of the present study is the tourist settlements of Shit-Walidar and Shirinsoo tourist areas in Tarom city. By purposive non-probability sampling method, 277 households were selected for sampling. The method of collecting field-library information and analyzing the data using inferential statistics such as the Wilcoxon test, T is a single sample in SPSS software. Representation and mapping of spatial flows of tourism in the study area have been done using UCINET software, and structural equation modeling (SEM) is in AMOS software.

The investment situation for launching tourism-related activities was 28.46%. The training courses' status in connection with tourism activities indicates that about 28% of the training courses were directly related to tourism activities, and 72% of the training were non-tourism related. Therefore, the flow of tourists entering the study area from the city of Zanjan is stronger, but the flow of Rasht and Khalkhal is weaker. Investigating the effects and consequences of the construction of Zanjan-Tahm-Chavarzeq road on tourism development indicators in the studied areas (local communities' point of view) with non-parametric Wilcoxon test; Shows that the construction of this road has the most significant difference in the components of improving job opportunities in tourism activities, respectively, Component of increasing the number of passengers and tourists, Component of reducing migration of local communities, Improving infrastructure. The road has had tourism facilities and services. Still, investment in tourism development has the least significant difference in the period before and after the construction of Zanjan-Tahm-Chavarzeq road. Also; To investigate the contribution of the effective factors of the consequences of the construction of Zanjan-Tahm-Chavarzeq road in the sustainable development of tourism from the perspective of local communities, structural modeling of second-order factor analysis was used. The development of tourism under the influence of 4 hidden factors (economic, socio-cultural, environmental, and physical) has been studied. It shows the effects of tourism development in the physical dimensions 97, Economic 96, Environment 94, and socio-cultural 79 percent.

The research findings show that before the construction of Zanjan-Tahm-Chavarzeq road, the study area was isolated in terms of communication and especially with the center of the province. Therefore, the construction and operation of the new Zanjan-Taham-Abbar road, while reducing the distance and time interval of access to Zanjan, has left numerous socio-economic effects on tourism development in the study area. Also, the main indicators of model fit show that the research data, Conceptual model of research in terms of the effectiveness of strengthening the transport infrastructure in tourism's sustainable development, has given a meaningful explanation. However, the transport network infrastructure position is still not suitable, and they have weaknesses and shortcomings.