Investigating Some of the Factors Affecting Agritourism Development in the Citrus Gardens (Studied Case: Caspian Sea Coastal Provinces)

The main purpose of this research was to investigate and identify some of the factors affecting the provision and development of tourism services by gardeners of Caspian Sea coastal provinces (Golestan, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces). Statistical population of this research included all multifunctional and monofunctional gardeners in Golestan, Gilan and Mazandaran provinces who were selected using stratified ransom Sampling with proportional assignment (n=280) and convenience sampling (n=148) respectively. Data were gathered using questionnaire. Results showed that attitude of multifunctional gardeners toward agritourism development were relatively positive while monofunctional gardeners showed a neutral perspective. Knowledge and skill of monofunctional and multifunctional gardeners in developing agritourism were average and high respectively. Results also showed that variables including; attending the entrepreneurship training courses, level of knowledge and skill in developing agritourism, entrepreneurial spirit and skill and gardeners` attitude toward agritourism explained 66.7 percent of dependent variable (provision of agritourism).