An Analysis of Bio-environmental, Economic, and Cultural Rural Tourism from Villagers’ Viewpoints (A Case of Fash Village in Kangavar)

Today; tourism affects rural life from different social, cultural, economic, and environmental aspects. Awareness is important as far as the host society as a supplier of tourism products is concerned. The present study used a survey and descriptive-analytical approach to analyze the villagers’ viewpoints about the effects  of rural tourism in Fash. The 226 statistical population of the study was the villagers who were selected using a systematic random sampling. Likert  scale and questionnaire were used for data collection  and the  SPSS 18 software was applied for data analysis. The findings showed that there were both positive and negative statistically significant effects in the area understudy. Concerning the economical aspects, new job creation, increasing income, tendency for service oriented careers were the positive aspects; while cost increase, people’s income gaps, increasing society’s awareness, decreasing security for girls and women in the society, increasing crimes, environment pollution and destruction, and at last increasing the expectations of villagers were the significant negative aspects of economy. Therefore the villagers’ systematic planning and their active participation in tourism sector could change the economic, cultural, and social aspects of rural life and thus could decrease the existing negative environmental effects of tourism