The Impact of Agritourism on the Sustainable Development of Sumehesara Rural Regions

Over the past decades, improving the livelihood of villagers has received much attention and has been considered as one of the goals of sustainable rural development. One of the main strategies to improve the rural economy is agricultural tourism, which can lead the village to development and sustainability. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of agritourism on the sustainable development of Somehsara. The method of the present study was applied in terms of its purpose and a descriptive survey as far as its methodology is considered. The population of this study included farmers, experts, and specialists living in Sumehsara. The instrument used in the study was a questionnaire on rural development. T-test and analysis of variance were used to analyze the hypotheses. According to the obtained results and the level of significance, agricultural tourism has affected all aspects of sustainable development. The environmental dimension with an average of 4.06 had the most impact and the social dimension with an average of 4.06 had the least impact.