Evaluating Tourist Satisfaction from Architectural Quality of Eco lodges with the Aim of Determining the Principles for Organizing Them (Case Study: Villages of Tonekabon County, Mazandaran Province)

Using tourism opportunities to improve rural development to preserve social and natural values and control the quality of eco-lodge’s architecture, necessitates the creation of a framework that addresses the relationship between the quality of architecture and tourist satisfaction. The purpose of this article is to find a framework for standardizing the architecture of residences and assessing the level of tourist satisfaction as well as the relationship between motivation, tourist satisfaction and their willingness to stay in again. The research method is descriptive-analytical in which after after compiling a conceptual model based on content analysis of theoretical content of vernacular architecture and identifying measurable models of tourist satisfaction, field information was collected through a questionnaire. According to the developed conceptual model, the physical-spatial, naturalistic and socio-cultural dimensions of architecture are assumed to meet the basic, functional and emotional requirements of tourist satisfaction, respectively. The statistical population includes ecotourists who refer to four active ecotourist residences in Tonkabon. The results show that the architecture of eco-lodges in terms of meeting the naturalistic /functional needs of tourists with an average of 3.08 is the most satisfied and in this regard, they prefer these resorts. In the next stage, the index of physical space needs with an average of 2.03 gained audience satisfaction. Socio-cultural indicators of residences had the lowest level of satisfaction. The analysis of the results indicates that in the research samples, location and naturalistic features of the architecture of the eco-lodges have been consistent with nature tourism as the dominant motivation of the eco-tourist. At the same time, these residences have not been able to motivate the clients to experience the rural life and to enable them to experience and interact with the indigenous culture and community. Finally, suggestions for improving the architectural quality of eco-lodges are presented.