Assessing the environmental sustainability of tourism in the target villages of East Azerbaijan province

Tourism and the environment are interdependent. For this reason, tourism development and management are key factors in achieving sustainable development. This study aimed to evaluate tourism's environmental sustainability in the target villages of East Azerbaijan province. This research is a survey in terms of practical purpose and in terms of how to collect data. The study's statistical population was the heads of households in four villages targeted for tourism in East Azerbaijan province (N = 819). Using the Krejcie-Morgan table, the statistical sample size of 265 people was calculated. The proportional stratified sampling method was used to obtain a statistical sample in each of the selected villages. To achieve the purpose of the research, in the first stage, the indicators of environmental sustainability of tourism were identified using an integrated method. Based on the two indicators, resource conservation and biodiversity and management and environmental policies were determined with 29 indicators. In the second stage, using the radar model, the overall environmental sustainability of tourism in the target villages of East Azerbaijan province was assessed. The results showed that the studied villages generally have a moderate level of environmental sustainability. Among the villages as case studies, the highest environmental sustainability score, equal to 0.585, belonged to Totehkhaneh village, and the lowest score, equal to 0.369, belonged to Kandovan village.