Evaluation and measurement of resilience of tourism target villages (Case study: Ardabil region)

Nowadays, the tourism industry is one of the most significant and diverse industries in the world that was developed rapidly and provided considerable income resources for many governments. Nowadays, the sustainability paradigm emerges as a significant and essential issue and has attracted the attention of the global communities in recent two decades. One of the components considered for reaching a sustainable development is resilience, and nowadays, the experience of the occurred crises and their resulted imposed damages makes the human being realize the need for resilience and making resilient settlement areas. Therefore, the prevailing perspective has changed from mere reducing vulnerability to increasing resilience when facing disasters. On the other hand, the touristic villages are prone to the damages resulting from these developments besides having potential factors in line with the tourism and development due to having tourism potential, and in some cases, due to the low resilience and being tourist-friendly besides the risks caused by the lack of the resilience have affected the villagers’ lives. Thus, due to tourism development, resilience must be considered in tourism villages to reduce the risks caused by the occurrence of the possible damages. Therefore, investigating the resilience of these villages can play a significant role in the development of sustainable tourism in them. Tourism villages of the Ardebil area are one of the tourism villages of the province and have the capability for sustainable tourism development. Thus, investigating the resilience of these villages can play an essential role in the sustainable tourism development within them. According to the abovementioned and the effects of the tourism development on the resilience of the rural regions, the current study was conducted to evaluate and assess the resilience of the target villages for tourism in the Ardebil area and sought to answer the following question: what is the level of the resilience of the target villages for tourism in Ardebil area?

   The current research was descriptive-analytical in terms of the nature of the research problem and subject. The statistical population of the current study included 11 target villages for tourism in the Ardebil area with a population of 4278. The data collection method to answer the research questions was the library study and the questionnaire. Four aspects, 10 indicators, and 33 items were used to assess resilience. Multivariate regression analysis was used to analyze the distributed questionnaires, and the one-sample t-test was used to study the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable and villagers’ opinions on the indicators of resilience. MAIRCA decision-making technique was used to rank the villages.

 The one-sample t-test was used to study the resilience status of the target villages four tourism in four aspects. The overall results of the one-sample t-test indicated an average of 2.13 for the resilience status of the villages under study. Given that the observed average of the resilience of the villages was less than 3, which is the medium level of the Likert scale, it can be said that the overall status of the resilience in the villages under study was evaluated as the low level of resilience. According to the obtained results from the one-sample t-test presented in Table 3, the following average values were obtained: 3.42 for the social aspect, 2.31 for the institutional aspect, 22.27 for the physical aspect, and 1.85 for the economic aspect. The significance level of all indicators was lower than the error level of 0.5. However, the t-value was lower than the critical value of 1.96 in the institutional aspect, and the upper limit and lower limit were negative. Furthermore, the average of the social aspect was more than 3, the desirable limit. Therefore, it can be said that the social aspect was at a more desirable status according to the villagers’ opinions. Nevertheless, other aspects are not at a desirable level, which is effective in reducing the resilience of the villages under study according to villagers’ opinions.

In general, the findings of this research by investigating the resilience status of the target villages for tourism in the Ardebil area, according to the results of the one-sample t-test, indicate that the overall status of the resilience was not desirable. They also indicate the poor resilience and low tolerance of the tourism villages in dealing with the issues caused by the major presence of the tourists at peak conditions of traveling. The overall results of the one-sample t-test indicated an average of 2.13 for the resilience status of the villages under study. Ranking 11 villages under study based on MAIRDA decision-making technique shows that Alvaresi Village and Aladizgeh Village ranked first and second, respectively, based on the score (Q) and are considered total resilient than other villages of the region and have more resilience against the increase in the needs of the village due to the entrance of the tourists. Atashgah, Golestan, Villa Darreh, Ilanjough, Kalkhvoran-e Viyand, Ghareshiran, and Sardabeh villages have relatively low resilience. Kanzag and Kur Abbaslu villages ranked the last in the rural resilience based on the set of the indicators understudy in the current research and are considered in the class of “lack of resilience”.