Evaluation and Analysis of Resilience of Rural Tourism and Identification of Key Drivers Affecting It in The Face of The Covid-19 Pandemic in Iran

Owramanat County in Kermanshah province with 14 tourism regions, is one of the best tourist destinations of Kermanshah province, in which the tourism activists have faced challenges during the period of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate and analyze the resilience of rural tourism and identify the key drivers affecting it in the face of Covid-19 pandemic in Owramanat County.

Design/methodology/approach:

 the present applied, quantitative study has been conducted with a combined approach (combination of descriptive-analytical and exploratory methods). The questionnaire method was used for data collection and its validity and reliability have been confirmed by observing scientific principles. In order to achieve the purposes of the study, the opinions of 150 people from the local community active in the field of tourism were used to evaluate the resilience, and the opinions of 30 experts were used to identify the primary factors affecting the resilience and also the views of 25 experts were taken into consideration in order to identify the key drivers affecting the resilience of rural tourism. The SPSS and MICMAC software were used to analyze the collected data.

The research findings showed that, the average of four variables including local government budget, environmental knowledge, community welfare, and social support system as the main components of the resilience of rural tourism were 1.757, 2.358, 1.808, and 2.295 respectively and have been significantly lower than the base average. The overall assessment results showed that the calculated average with a value of 2.014 has been significantly lower than the medium level. The results also showed that, among 17 factors affecting the resilience of tourism, 5 factors of government financial support, financial capital, sanitary equipment, infrastructural facilities and disease control are the most effective key drivers on resilience.

Originality/ value:

 Evaluation and analysis of the resilience of rural tourism in the face of Covid-19 pandemic with an approach of presenting the key indicators and variables in this field and also identification of key drivers affecting the resilience of rural tourism have received less attention from researchers and this proves the originality of the present study.